A Conversation With Bobbi Peckarsky

For more than 50 years, stream ecologist Bobbi Peckarsky, PhD, has returned to RMBL to study inhabitants of streams in the East River watershed, mentor generations of students, and build a scientific community that spans decades. This August, she’s bringing together more than 60 alumni and their families in Gothic to celebrate 50 years of stream ecology at RMBL at a reunion of the Benthettes, an informal network of stream ecologists whose research has helped shape the field. RMBL Communications Manager Suzanne Ennis spoke with Bobbi about the upcoming event, the launch of Rocky Mountain Rivers, the partnerships that have defined Bobbi’s career, and why some of the best science grows from deep roots in one place. 

Suzanne Ennis: You first came to RMBL more than 50 years ago. What brought you to Gothic? 

Bobbi Peckarsky: I first came to RMBL in the summer of 1974. I was a high school teacher at the time in Madison, Wisconsin… During the summers… I would take field classes just to keep myself busy academically. One of the professors said, “Why stay here? You should go to a field station.” 

 I asked him, “What’s a field station?” 

He told me about RMBL… I applied and got accepted. I took Rocky Mountain Flora from Harriet Barclay… and aquatic ecology from Stan and Ginny Dodson. I became smitten with streams during their class… I did a project, and Stan thought it was so good that he said, “Do you want to go back to graduate school?” 

I ended up teaching high school for one more academic year, applied to the University of Wisconsin to do a PhD with Stan Dodson, and at that point, there was just no way I was ever going to spend a summer anywhere else. 

Suzanne: What has been the advantage of coming back to RMBL, year after year? 

Bobbi: One of the most interesting things about spending that much time in one place … is the idea of “ecology of place.” [My former student] Kara [Cromwell] put it beautifully: “A relationship with the East River watershed has motivated our work for decades and taught us that big ideas about the world can come from a deep understanding of one place.” 

A fascinating thing that happens is that the place tells you the questions. I call it the “follow-your-nose” approach to ecology. You’re turning over rocks looking for eggs, and then you find a mayfly with a worm coming out of it, and you say, “Well, what the heck is that?” You keep going from question to question to question. It’s curiosity-based and rooted in natural history. Each observation leads to another. 

 Suzanne: That seems like a perfect description of long-term science. 

Bobbi: Staying in one place, you’re forced to explain surprising observations. One of the observations we made years ago ran completely counter to accepted theory. … We expected mayflies to be less abundant where trout were eating them. Instead, we found they were more abundant in trout streams than in streams with no trout. 

That led to almost 20 years of research to try to explain why. We started by looking at the behavior and life histories of mayflies … and learned that their responses to the presence of chemical cues from trout partially explained the unexpected observation. …  Eventually another student, Andrea Encalada, discovered that the adult female mayflies were laying many more eggs in trout streams because they preferred a certain kind of rock, which was more common in trout streams. That discovery provided the final piece of the puzzle that explained the surprising pattern of variation in mayfly abundance. That’s one of the most important things about ecology of place. If you’re dedicated to staying in one place, you don’t just say, “Well, that’s probably an anomaly,” and move somewhere else. You stay until you figure it out. 

What I’ve been doing most recently is mentoring students who want to do projects on questions we can answer using [our] long-term data set. It’s a treasure, because it started in 1976. Having 50 years of data, we think it’s the longest ongoing series of stream invertebrate samples in the world. So lots of questions related to our changing environment can be answered using our data set, and we’re just now starting to mine it in collaboration with colleagues and students. 

Suzanne: This month’s newsletter is about the power of partnerships. Looking back, how important have relationships been to your career? 

Bobbi: A lot of my approach to science and life came from Stanley Dodson. He tragically died way too young. … It was a huge loss, but he’s… inside of me. 

And then, over the years, my students became collaborators. For example, Andrea Encalada, Kara Cromwell, Angus McIntosh, Brad Taylor, Maruxa Alvarez…  so many people have contributed ideas that changed the direction of our research.   

That’s really how science works. You can’t just work by yourself as a scientist. Ecology of place is also about people. They look at different things. They bring in different perspectives. … I always tell my students I learn more from them than they learn from me, and that’s really true. 

Suzanne: Speaking of partnerships, you were the founding member of a group called “the Benthettes.” Tell us about them. 

Bobbi: The Benthettes started in 1976, which was my first summer as a grad student at RMBL. … Benthos is the Greek word for “bottom dwelling,” and the Benthettes became the endearing title for people who studied bottom-dwelling organisms, the benthic invertebrates at RMBL. … What started as a research group became something much bigger. We’ve had generations of graduate students, postdocs, collaborators, technicians… People came through the lab, then became faculty members, then mentored their own students, who became part of the community. 

This August we’re organizing a 50-year reunion of the Benthettes at RMBL. It’s really a celebration of 50 years of research… but also of the people who’ve made that research possible.   

We’re excited to welcome Benthettes of all generations and their families to celebrate how our place-based research has contributed to the foundations of stream ecology in general.  And to reconnect across generations to share stories about our time as Benthettes at RMBL. Once a Benthette, always a Benthette.   

Suzanne: You’re introducing Rocky Mountain Rivers at the reunion, too. Can you tell me about that organization?  

Bobbi: Rocky Mountain Rivers [was established] as a 501c3 organization to provide a support system to keep doing what I’ve been doing for 50 years, along with all the amazing people who have made it possible to accomplish what we’ve accomplished, and to keep that going for the next 50 years. 

Our mission is to use science to inspire wonder and inform stewardship of rivers in the Rocky Mountains and beyond. Our activities are going to [include continuing] the long-term sampling, mentoring students and sharing our science stories with the broader community. [Gothic] is where everything happens.  

Rocky Mountain Rivers doesn’t exist without RMBL. All of the money that we raise pretty much goes to the lab to pay for the privilege of working and living here.  

Suzanne: Sounds like a perfect example of the partnership we’re talking about. 

Bobbi: That’s our goal. We hope to be a very productive partner. 

Read more about Bobbi in this 2021 profile. 

Top, left to right: Benthettes Ian Hauver-Radloff, Margot Buckelew, Bobbi, Mairead Brogan, Anaiz Ruiz and Rita Barclay-Hart in 2019 at Lower Rock Creek. Photo by Scott Wissinger