Megan Behnke, Ph.D.

Megan Behnke was born and raised here in Lingít Aaní. She first joined UAS as a stream chemistry technician in 2016 with the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center, and returned in 2022 to serve as postdoctoral fellow through the Coastal Rainforest Margins Research Network and the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. In between she received her MS and PhD from Florida State University, studying what happens when warming temperatures release organic carbon that has been locked away in permafrost, glaciers, and wetland soils in both coastal temperate rainforests and around the pan-Arctic with the Arctic Great Rivers Observatory. Megan uses a combination of ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry and elemental and isotopic ratios to explore how the sources, processing, and fates of organic matter are changing due to climate change and associated shifts in land use and land cover.

Megan's current research interests include understanding how cryospheric warming (i.e. glacial melt and permafrost thaw) is changing the type and delivery of organic matter to streams and to the nearshore environment and the role human actions (such as fossil fuel burning) have on organic matter cycling. She is also interested in understanding the role of trees in delivering dissolved organic matter to forest floors, stream systems, and the nearshore environment. In addition to research, Megan spends her time paddling, skiing, climbing, gardening, reading (particularly science fiction) and bushwhacking around the forest trying to find her dog.