Daniel Spooner, Ph.D.

Courses Most Commonly Taught

• Principles of Biology Lab
• Aquatic Biology

Areas of Expertise

My research interests broadly involve the development of ways to assess the health of our freshwater ecosystems (lakes, rivers and streams). Much of this work has focused on the conservation of native freshwater mussels and their corresponding functions (biofiltration, habitat engineering) they provide to stream ecosystems. I am also interested in the nutritional ecology of freshwater biofilms (algae and bacteria slime on rocks), and how we can use this information to assess and characterize nutrient and sediment watershed stressors. Over the past couple of years, I have expanded my research to include the physiological ecology of brook trout in headwater streams and the nutritional ecology of smallmouth bass populations in the Susquehanna River Basin.

• Nutritional Ecology
• Aquatic Ecology
• Physiological Ecology

Professional Publications

Atkinson, C.L., A.D. Christian, D. E. Spooner, and C.C. Vaughn. 2014. Long-lived organisms provide an integrative footprint of agricultural land use. Ecological Applications 24(2): 375-384.

Newton, Teresa J., C. C. Vaughn, D. E. Spooner, and M. Arts. 2013. Profiles of biochemical tracers in unionid mussels across a broad geographic range. Journal of Shellfish Research 32(2): 497-507.

Spooner, D. E., et al. 2013. Nutrient loading associated with agriculture land use dampens the importance of consumer‐mediated niche construction. Ecology Letters 16(9):1115-1125.

Spooner, D. E., et al. 2012. Species traits and environmental conditions determine congruence of biodiversity effects across adjacent trophic levels. Oecologia 168(2): 533-548.

Spooner, D. E., and C. C. Vaughn 2012. Species’ dominance and environmental gradients interact to govern primary productivity in freshwater mussel communities. Oikos 3: 403-416.

McFeeters, B. J, M.A. Xenopoulos, D. E. Spooner, N. D. Wagner, and P. C. Frost. 2011. Intraspecific mass-scaling of metabolic rates of a freshwater crayfish varies with land cover. Ecosphere 2(2): 1-12.