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Ken Forshay
Dr. Forshay is a research ecologist in GWERD’s Ecosystem and Subsurface Protection Branch. He has a B.S. in Environmental and Resource Sciences from the University of California at Davis, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin. His research areas are nitrogen management and riparian and stream restoration.
Dr. Forshay’s research interests focus on the relationships between water quality and biogeochemical processing of nutrients in aquatic ecosystems. The goal is to identify patterns of nutrient concentration change in floodplain systems influenced by biogeomorphic structures. Specific efforts include nitrogen processing in large river floodplains, macrophyte weed beds of agricultural rivers, and legacy sediment removal in streams to understand the dynamics of nutrients within aquatic ecosystems. Other research includes the role of disease on nutritional food quality of zooplankton and the influence of disease on grazing rates. In previously published research, changes in patterns of nitrogen concentration were identified in a large river floodplain after seasonal flooding; the factors that influence nutrient dynamics were quantified with resect to hydrology, chemistry, and biology using a combined biogeochemical and mass balance approach. Improved understanding of these processes helps elucidate anthropogenic effects on nutrient change in aquatic ecosystems and better understand the relationship between biogeochemical process and water quality.
Selected Publications
Forshay, K.J., P.T.J. Johnson, M. Stock, C. Peñalva, and S.I. Dodson. (2008). “Festering Food: Chytridiomycete Pathogen Reduces Quality of Daphnia Host as a Food Resource.” Ecology, 89: 2692–2699.
Weis, J.J., B.J. Cardinale, K.J. Forshay, and A.R. Ives. (2007). “Effects of Species Diversity on Community Biomass Production Change Over the Course of Succession.” Ecology, 88: 929–939.
Balser, T.C., K. McMahon, D. Bronson, D. Coyle, N. Craig, M. Flores, K. Forshay, S. Jones, A. Kent, and A. Shade. (2006). “Bridging the Gap Between Micro- and Macroscale Perspectives on Ecosystem Response to Disturbance.” Plant and Soil Special Issue, 289, 1-2: 59–70.
Johnson, P.T.J., D.E. Stanton, E.R. Preu, K.J. Forshay, and S. R. Carpenter. (2006). “Indirect Effects of Disease: Influence of Chytrid Fungal Infection and Lake Characteristics on Predation Risk in Daphnia pulicaria.” Ecology, 87, 8: 1973–1980.
Forshay, K.J. and E.H. Stanley. (2005). “Rapid Nitrate Loss and Denitrification in a Temperate River Floodplain.” Biogeochemistry, 75: 43–64.
Forshay, K.J., H.N. Morazaria-Luna, B.D. Hale, and K.I. Predick. (2005). “An Evaluation of the Wetlands Reserve Program in South-Central Wisconsin.” Environmental Management, 36, 2: 248–257.
Orr, C.H., B.M. Roth, J.D. Gonzales, K.J. Forshay, M.M. Papenfus, and R.D.G. Wassell. (2004). “Examination of Physical and Regulatory Variables Leading to Small Dam Removal in Wisconsin.” Environmental Management, 33, 1: 99–109.