Phoebe L. Zarnetske

Phoebe L. Zarnetske is a community ecologist and associate professor in the Department of Forestry and in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University. Her work focuses on the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that shape natural communities across multiple spatial scales.

Zarnetske received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Biology at Colby College in 2001. She received her Master of Science in Ecology at Utah State University in 2006 and her Ph.D. in 2006 from Oregon State University.She was a Graduate Fellow National State Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Ecosystem Informatics. She also was a Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale Climate and Energy Institute at Yale University from 2011-2013.

Zarnetske was a Graduate Researcher at Utah State University from 2003 2006. She was a Graduate Fellow at Oregon State University from 2006-2011. From 2011-2013, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. In 2013, Zarnetske joined the Department of Forestry, and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University.

Zarnetske has contributed to ecology by researching how underlying mechanisms connect with observed patterns of biodiversity and community composition. Her work specifically focuses on the impact that biotic interactions, species invasions, biophysical feedbacks, geodiversity, and climate change has on composition and geographic distribution of ecological communities.

Zarnetske has contributed to our understanding of how climate change impacts species and communities and the interaction between the two. She described the biotic multipliers of climate change, which are species both sensitive to climate change and with disproportionate effects on communities and ecosystems. These species are often top predators, and should be the ones to study first because they might have the greatest effects on other species.

Zarnetske has contributed to the field of spatial and community ecology by highlighting the importance and relevance that interactions between biotic interactions and environmental conditions have on predicting the spread of non-native species and their impact on resident communities. She also enforces the idea that comprehending the combined impacts of environmental forcing and species interactions on community assembly particularly in important in cases where species introductions can alter ecosystem services.

• Highly Commended for Harper Prize  (2014)      
• Hatfield Marine Science Center, Best Poster at Markham Research Symposium (2007)     
• The Wildlife Society, Utah Chapter Best Poster Award (2006)
• Ecological Society of America (ESA), E. Lucy Braun Award (2005) 
• Maine Water Conference, Best Student Research Poster (2001)

• Lany, Nina K.; Zarnetske, Phoebe L.; Schliep, Erin M.; Schaeffer, Robert N.; Orians, Colin M.; Orwig, David A.; Preisser, Evan L. (2018-04-02). "Asymmetric biotic interactions and abiotic niche differences revealed by a dynamic joint species distribution model". Ecology. 99 (5): 1018–1023. doi:10.1002/ecy.2190. ISSN 0012-9658. PMID 29608784.
• Read, Quentin D.; Grady, John M.; Zarnetske, Phoebe L.; Record, Sydne; Baiser, Benjamin; Belmaker, Jonathan; Tuanmu, Mao-Ning; Strecker, Angela; Beaudrot, Lydia (2018). "Among-species overlap in rodent body size distributions predicts species richness along a temperature gradient". Ecography. 41 (10): 1718–1727. doi:10.1111/ecog.03641. ISSN 1600-0587.
• Schliep, Erin M.; Lany, Nina K.; Zarnetske, Phoebe L.; Schaeffer, Robert N.; Orians, Colin M.; Orwig, David A.; Preisser, Evan L. (2018). "Joint species distribution modelling for spatio-temporal occurrence and ordinal abundance data". Global Ecology and Biogeography. 27 (1): 142–155. doi:10.1111/geb.12666. ISSN 1466-8238.

In 2016, Zarnetske was a member of the Ecosystem Functioning Working Group, International Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO-BON). She was on the editorial board of Axios. ln 2011-2016, she was a NSF Proposal ad hoc Reviewer (EAR, OPUS)   2006-2011 Awa, rshe was an Jwaudgj, Buell/Braun Award, Ecological Society of America annual meetings