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Dr. Emma J. Rosi

Aquatic Ecologist | PhD, University of Georgia

Expertise
freshwater, invasive species, human impacts

Emma Rosi advanced our understanding of how land use, urbanization, and climate change shape freshwater ecosystems, with projects exploring environmental contaminants such as pharmaceutical and personal care products, aging wastewater infrastructure, environmental implications of agricultural GMOs, and the effects of dams.

Rosi directed the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research site. As part of BES, Rosi explored the role that failing wastewater infrastructure plays in polluting streams and creating antibiotic-resistant microbes. She also revealed how prescription and illicit drugs that enter our waterways impact freshwater quality and aquatic life.

In addition to her work on human-driven threats to freshwaters, Rosi co-led a long-term project, in collaboration with Yale University, investigating how wildebeest and hippos shape the food web in the Kenyan reach of Africa’s Mara River.

Rosi is a leader in the field of freshwater science, is a Fellow of the Society for Freshwater Science and has conducted research on the role of emerging contaminants shaping these systems.  Rosi served on the  US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board and her research has implications for our understanding of anthropogenic stressors on freshwater ecosystems.

Steele, JJB, AN Thellman, OK Vought, Emma J. Rosi, T Wooster, Christopher T. Solomon, and Emily S. Bernhardt. (2024) 2024. “Bryospheres in Oligotrophic Headwater Streams Provide Nutrient-Dense Habitats and Dominate Stream Nutrient Cycling”. FRESHWATER SCIENCE. doi:10.1086/733067.
Castiblanco, ES, Peter M. Groffman, J Duncan, LE Band, E Doheny, GT Fisher, Emma J. Rosi, and AK Suchy. (2024) 2023. “Long-Term Trends in Nitrate and Chloride in Streams in an Exurban Watershed”. URBAN ECOSYSTEMS 26 (3): 831-44. doi:10.1007/s11252-023-01340-0.
Rosi, Emma J., JB Fick, and Barbara A. Han. 2023. “Are Animal Disease Reservoirs at Risk of Human Antiviral Exposure?”. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY LETTERS 10 (5): 439-45. doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00201.
Rumschlag, SL, MB Mahon, DK Jones, W Battaglin, J Behrens, ES Bernhardt, P Bradley, et al. 2023. “Density Declines, Richness Increases, and Composition Shifts in Stream Macroinvertebrates”. SCIENCE ADVANCES 9 (18). doi:10.1126/sciadv.adf4896.
Green, Mark B., Linda H. Pardo, John L. Campbell, Emma J. Rosi, Emily S. Bernhardt, Charles T. Driscoll, Timothy J. Fahey, Nicholas LoRusso, Jackie Matthes, and Pamela H. Templer. 2023. “Combination of Factors Rather Than Single Disturbance Drives Perturbation of the Nitrogen Cycle in a Temperate Forest”. Biogeochemistry 166 (2). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 139-57. doi:10.1007/s10533-023-01105-z.
Meyer, Michael F., Ted Ozersky, Kara H. Woo, Kirill Shchapov, Aaron W. E. Galloway, Julie B. Schram, Emma J. Rosi, et al. 2022. “Effects of Spatially Heterogeneous Lakeside Development on Nearshore Biotic Communities in a Large, Deep, Oligotrophic Lake”. Limnology and Oceanography. Wiley. doi:10.1002/lno.12228.
McPhearson, Timon, Elizabeth M. Cook, Marta Berbés-Blázquez, Chingwen Cheng, Nancy B. Grimm, Erik Andersson, Olga Barbosa, et al. 2022. “A Social-Ecological-Technological Systems Framework for Urban Ecosystem Services”. One Earth 5 (5). Elsevier BV: 505-18. doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2022.04.007.
Brandão-Dias, Pedro F. P., Alison E. Deatsch, Jennifer L. Tank, Arial J. Shogren, Emma J. Rosi, Steven T. Ruggiero, Carol E. Tanner, and Scott P. Egan. 2022. “Novel Field-Based Protein Detection Method Using Light Transmission Spectroscopy and Antibody Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles”. Nano Letters 22 (7). American Chemical Society (ACS): 2611-17. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04142.
Sonti, Nancy F., Peter M. Groffman, David J. Nowak, Jason G. Henning, Meghan L. Avolio, and Emma J. Rosi. 2022. “Urban Net Primary Production: Concepts, Field Methods, and Baltimore, Maryland, USA Case Study”. Ecological Applications 32 (4). Wiley. doi:10.1002/eap.2562.
Frauendorf, TC, Amanda L. Subalusky, CL Dutton, Stephen K. Hamilton, FO Masese, Emma J. Rosi, GA Singer, and DM Post. (2024) 2021. “Animal Legacies Lost and Found in River Ecosystems”. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS 16 (11). doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac2cb0.
Campbell, John L., Lindsey E. Rustad, Scott W. Bailey, Emily S. Bernhardt, Charles T. Driscoll, Mark B. Green, Peter M. Groffman, et al. 2021. “Watershed Studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest: Building on a Long Legacy of Research With New Approaches and Sources of Data”. Hydrological Processes 35 (1). Wiley. doi:10.1002/hyp.14016.
Reisinger, Alexander J., Jennifer L. Tank, Robert O. Hall, Emma J. Rosi, Michelle A. Baker, and Laurel Genzoli. 2021. “Water Column Contributions to the Metabolism and Nutrient Dynamics of Mid-Sized Rivers”. Biogeochemistry 153 (1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 67-84. doi:10.1007/s10533-021-00768-w.
Brandão-Dias, Pedro F. P., Emma J. Rosi, Arial Shogren, Jennifer L. Tank, David T. Fischer, and Scott P. Egan. 2021. “Fate of Environmental Proteins (eProteins) from Genetically Engineered Crops in Streams Is Controlled by Water PH and Ecosystem Metabolism”. Environmental Science & Technology 55 (8). American Chemical Society (ACS): 4688-97. doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c05731.
Reisinger, Alexander J., Lindsey S. Reisinger, Erinn K. Richmond, and Emma J. Rosi. 2021. “Exposure to a Common Antidepressant Alters Crayfish Behavior and Has Potential Subsequent Ecosystem Impacts”. Ecosphere 12 (6). Wiley. doi:10.1002/ecs2.3527.
Likens, Gene E., Donald C. Buso, Emily S. Bernhardt, and Emma J. Rosi. 2021. “A Century of Change: Reconstructing the Biogeochemical History of Hubbard Brook”. Hydrological Processes 35 (6). Wiley. doi:10.1002/hyp.14256.
Fork, M.L., Jerker Fick, Alexander J. Reisinger, and Emma J. Rosi. 2021. “Dosing the Coast: Leaking Sewage Infrastructure Delivers Large Annual Doses and Dynamic Mixtures of Pharmaceuticals to Urban Rivers”. Environmental Science & Technology 55 (17). American Chemical Society (ACS): 11637-45. doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c00379.
Plum, Cami, Stephen K. Hamilton, Rebekah Henry, David McCarthy, Emma J. Rosi, and Michael Grace. (2019) 2021. “PHARMACEUTICAL TRANSPORT AND TRANSFORMATION IN TRAPA NATANS BEDS”. Final Reports of the Tibor T. Polgar Fellowship Program, 2019. https://www.hudsonriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/polgar-plum-tp-06-19.pdf.
Dutton, Christopher L., Amanda L. Subalusky, Alvaro Sanchez, Sylvie Estrela, Nanxi Lu, Stephen K. Hamilton, Laban Njoroge, Emma J. Rosi, and David M. Post. 2021. “The Meta-Gut: Community Coalescence of Animal Gut and Environmental Microbiomes”. Scientific Reports 11 (1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-02349-1.
Kelso, Julia E., Emma J. Rosi, and Michelle A. Baker. 2020. “Towards More Realistic Estimates of DOM Decay in Streams: Incubation Methods, Light, and Non-Additive Effects”. Freshwater Science 39 (3). University of Chicago Press: 559-75. doi:10.1086/710218.
Pickett, Steward T. A., Morgan Grove, Shannon L. LaDeau, Emma J. Rosi, and Mary L. Cadenasso. 2020. “Urban Ecology As an Integrative Science and Practice”. In Urban Ecology: Its Nature and Challenges, 122-43. CABI. doi:10.1079/9781789242607.0122.

Projects