Current Position: Department of Water Resources

Dr. Baruch is a community ecologist interested in the role of environmental regimes in structuring species assemblages, food webs, and ecosystem processes over time. Ethan’s PhD research at Arizona State University focused on quantifying the inter-reliance between aquatic and riparian food webs, and the temporal dynamics of desert stream fish communities resulting from short- and long-term streamflow variability. As a postdoc at UC Davis, Ethan was working on a collaborative project with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to relate components of the flow regime to trends in the abundance and distribution of California native fishes. Specifically, he used long term data to link fish life history traits with the timing, magnitude, and duration of low-flow conditions; with the goal of informing water management strategies that benefit both aquatic ecosystems and human water needs. Ethan was co-advised by Dr. Sarah Yarnell (https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/people/sarah-m-yarnell).