Dr. F. Richard Hauer

Graduate Students

Research and Graduate Student Training

• all our research will be built on high quality, reliable data.
• ecosystem research is interactive and cooperative.
• modern ecological research is expensive; thus, research questions should be as significant as possible.
• the question, not the hypothesis, should motivate the research.
• never let the availability of tests limit the questions you can ask.
• planned, properly replicated, and controlled experiments conducted in the framework of a hypothesis-driven experimental design provides the strongest, most efficient means of gaining new information.
• always generate multiple hypotheses and multiple predictions.
• a weak test of a strong hypothesis is superior to a strong test of a weak hypothesis.
• always consider alternative explanations for results obtained.
• selection of field and laboratory methods, accuracy, and precision are important.
• the application of results to real world problems may be their most important use.
• build on existing data and existing concepts.
• our goal is not to add data but to enhance understanding.

Graduate Application

How to Apply

• Contact me via email expressing your interest, area of research you want to pursue, and what your long term professional goals are.
• Contact the Division of Biological Sciences (DBS) at UM by emailing Janean Clark and asking for application materials.
• You must meet all the qualifications established by the Oganismal Biology and Ecology graduate program within DBS and all graduate school minimum requirements for consideration of acceptance. You must also have taken the GRE exams including the Biology subject GRE prior to the application closing date of January 31.

Recent Past Graduate Students

Name	Photo	Project Description	Publications
Colden Baxter Email		Investigated the distribution and abundance of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) spawning as affected by geomorphology and hyporheic groundwater-stream water exchange across multiple spatial scales in streams of the Swan Basin, northwestern Montana. Bull trout selected stream reaches for spawning that were strongly influenced by upwelling. The changing relationship of spawning habitat selection, in which bull trout selected upwelling zones at one spatial scale and downwelling zones at another spatial scale, emphasizes the importance of considering multiple spatial scales within a hierarchical geomorphic context when considering the ecology of this species or plans for bull trout conservation and restoration.	Baxter, C. V. and F. R. Hauer. 2000. Geomorphology, hyporheic exchange, and selection of spawning habitat by bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 57: 1470-1481. Baxter, C. V., C. A. Frissell, and F. R. Hauer. 1999. Geomorphology, logging roads and the distribution of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) spawning in a forested river basin: Implications for management and conservation. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 128: 854-867. Hauer, F. R., G. C. Poole, J. T. Gangemi, and C. V. Baxter. 1999. Large woody debris in bull trout spawning streams of logged and wilderness watersheds in northwest Montana. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 56:915-924.
Bradley Cook Email		The importance of landscape-level connectivity to depressional wetland structure and function is ambiguous. The ambiguity is a result of the relative significance researchers have placed on surface versus groundwater hydrology. We compared differences in depressional wetland structure and function between wetlands with and without a connection to an adjacent up-gradient wetland. Our results provide evidence that depressional wetland hydrology and vegetation structure are primarily determined by surface- and soil-water hydrologic processes that are expressed at both the landscape and localized spatial scales. Conservation policies should incorporate depressional wetland dependence on landscape-level hydrologic processes, specifically their commonly ignored surface- and soil-water hydrologic connections.	Hauer, F. R., B. J. Cook, M. C. Gilbert, E. C. Clairain, Jr., and R. D. Smith. 2001. The Hydrogeomorphic Approach to Functional Assessment: A Regional Guidebook for Assessing the Functions of Riverine Floodplain Wetlands in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Special Publ. WES, USCOE, Vicksburg, MS. p.255. Hauer, F. R., B. J. Cook, M. C. Gilbert, E. C. Clairain, Jr., and R. D. Smith. 2000. A regional guidebook: Assessing the functions of intermontane prairie pothole wetlands in the northern Rocky Mountains. Special Publ. WES, USCOE, Vicksburg, MS. p.189. Cook, B. J. and F. R. Hauer. In review. Hydrologic connections among depressional, pothole wetlands control ecosystem structure and function at the landscape scale. Ecological Monographs.
Winsor Lowe Email		Quantified the distribution and abundance of Parapsyche elsis and Arctopsyche grandis (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae) larvae at eight sites along a 560 m elevation and 36 km longitudinal gradient in McDonald Creek, a pristine, mountain stream in Glacier National Park. The physiological response of these species to stream temperature and resulting bioenergetics is the probable mechanism structuring the stream distribution and abundance patterns of these species.	Hauer, F. R., J. A. Stanford, J. J. Giersch, and W. H. Lowe. 2000. Distribution and abundance patterns of macroinvertebrates in a mountain stream: An analysis along multiple environmental gradients. Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol. 27:1485-1488. Lowe, W. H. and F. R. Hauer. 1999. Ecology of two net-spinning caddisflies in a mountain stream: distribution, abundance and metabolic response to a thermal gradient. Can. J. Zool. 77: 1637-1644.
Vicki Ludden Email		Examined the macroinvertebrate communities of pristine and disturbed intermontane prairie potholes. Macroinvertebrates have been used extensively as indices of biological integrity (IBI) in rivers and streams. By comparison, development of IBI in wetlands is in its infancy. However, because wetlands often demonstrate very high natural variability, the effectiveness of the IBI metrics used to distinguish between undisturbed and disturbed wetlands may be particularly problematic. In spite of the high natural variability in intermontane potholes, macroinvertebrates were shown to be sensitive to the effects of impairment, thus warranting their use as bioindicators in these freshwater systems.	Ludden, V. E. and F. R. Hauer. In press. The effects of natural variability on the use of macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of disturbance in intermontane depressional wetlands in northwestern Montana, USA. Wetlands.
David Pepin Email		We tested the hypotheses that groundwater - surface water exchange regimes affect periphyton biomass and the distribution and abundance patterns of Ephemoroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) taxa in main channel riffle habitats of 2 NW Montana rivers flowing through alluvial flood plains. We demonstrated general patterns of groundwater - surface water exchange between river channel and hyporheic zone waters by measuring vertical hydraulic gradients (VHG) and hydraulic conductivities using mini-piezometers. Riffles located near the upstream limit of each flood plain were characterized by strong, hyporheic recharge (-VHG; downwelling), while weak, dispersed hyporheic discharge (+VHG; upwelling) characterized those riffles located throughout the lower half of each flood plain. There were no differences in mean seston concentrations between riffle sites on either flood plain within any season. Although periphyton mean abundance was not significantly different across all seasons, maximum algal biomass was generally greater in upwelling zone riffles (+VHG) than in downwelling zone riffles (-VHG). Variation in algal standing stock biomass in upwelling riffles was ~ 30% greater than in downwelling riffles. There was no difference in mean EPT density between upwelling and downwelling sites. However, there were species-specific responses to differential hyporheic exchange, which were correlated with differences in algal biomass and vertical hydraulic gradient. The results of this study suggest that hyporheic exchange patterns influence physical habitat structure of main channel riffles and affect the distribution and abundance of both periphyton and macroinvertebrates in those habitats.	Pepin, D. M. and F. R. Hauer. In press. Benthic responses to groundwater - surface water exchange in two alluvial rivers. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc.

Current Graduate Students

Name	Photo	Project Description	Publication
Grant Bronk Email		Working on riverine wetland plant associations.	Publications Not Available
Brian Reid Email		Working on biocomplexity and secondary production of hypogean fauna.	Publications Not Available