Patricia Soranno

Professor

Michigan State University

Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

Research Overview

I am a landscape limnologist, that is, a freshwater scientist who studies geographical factors that influence aquatic chemistry and biology. I have a strong disciplinary background in freshwater ecology (i.e., limnology), but I have worked hard to incorporate principles and ideas into my work from other disciplines such as geography, spatial sciences, statistical modeling, conservation, and policy. With this perspective, my collaborators and I are working to develop the principles for landscape limnology so that this important perspective can be applied to address many research questions and environmental problems facing freshwaters at local to global scales. We are also working to take the knowledge gained from studying freshwaters from such a perspective to apply to other broad-scale ecological questions related to macrosystems ecology, another emerging area of study.

Why do I study what I do? Sound stewardship of ecologically and economically important freshwater resources is a challenging problem because of the vast diversity and sheer number of freshwater ecosystems. For example, Michigan alone has more than 10,000 lakes, more than 10,000 square miles of wetlands, and more than 30,000 miles of streams. Given these numbers along with limited state and federal resources, we are only able to individually study, monitor, and create specific policies for unique, high-profile ecosystems such as the North American Great Lakes, the Amazon River, and Lake Baikal. Unfortunately, this individualized approach is too expensive to apply to the vast majority of freshwater ecosystems. Consequently, local and national governmental agencies must frequently make decisions and develop policies for most ecosystems with little ecosystem-specific information and little knowledge of how different ecosystems will respond to the same action or policy. Typically, single policies are developed that apply equally to all ecosystems. However, when decision makers apply a single policy to freshwater ecosystems, they often do not know where the policy will fail, where it might work, and what some possible alternatives might be to that one policy. I have designed my research program to increase the basic and applied knowledge to address this important problem.

Why I collaborate for all of my research. My work in landscape limnology has shown me that the nature of many environmental problems is such that no one individual can have all of the knowledge and skills needed to solve the complex problems facing the environment.  I feel strongly that the future of environmental science is in highly functioning interdisciplinary collaborative groups that require individuals with a diversity of perspectives and skillsets, strong foundations in disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, and the ability to work collaboratively. I have been lucky to have found such wonderful collaborators to work with in the past and present, and hopefully well into the future.

I am co-director of the Landscape Limnology Research Group, and I am a member of the Center for Water Sciences, Environmental Science and Policy Program, and  Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Behavior program. All of my research is conducted collaboratively with students and faculty at MSU and many other institutions.

Contact information

Patricia A. Soranno

Michigan State University
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

480 Wilson Road, Room 13

Natural Resources Building

Office: 9B Natural Resources Building

Office: 517-432-4330
Lab: 517-353-3234
Fax: 517-432-1699
Email: soranno@anr.msu.edu