Dr. Casey Godwin recently joined CIGLR as an Assistant Research Scientist. He has a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and behavior from the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on how the elemental requirements of bacteria and algae couple carbon and nutrient cycles in freshwater ecosystems. The driving question behind this work is “as we continue to pollute our aquatic ecosystems with excess nutrients, will cycling of carbon and other elements change in proportion, or will fertilization decouple key ecosystem processes?” He has examined this question in the context of impact of stream algae on nutrient retention within watersheds, functional diversity of freshwater bacteria in response to land use change, and most recently, minimizing the fertilizer demand of renewable fuels produced from algae. As part of CIGLR, he is working on projects including the effects of nutrient abundance and forms on harmful algal blooms and the influence of hypoxia on the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and heavy metals in Lake Erie.