Matthew Waters
Department of Geosciences
Adjunct Faculty
Department of Geosciences
Adjunct Faculty
Research Areas: Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences
Office: 250 Funchess Hall
Address:
250 Funchess Hall
Auburn, AL 36849
Phone: (334) 844-3950
Email: mwaters@auburn.edu
Education
Ph.D., Environmental Sciences — UNC-Chapel Hill
2007
M.S., Aquatic Sciences — University of Florida
2000
B.S., Environmental Science — Mercer University
1997
Professional Employment
Assistant Professor, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University
2016 - Present
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Valdosta State University
2014 - 2016
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Valdosta State University
2010 - 2014
Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences, Shorter University
2008 - 2010
ostdoctoral Research Fellow, University of South Florida
2007 - 2008
Honors and Awards
Graduate Faculty of the Year Award — Valdosta State University
2015
Research Faculty of the Year Award (finalist) — Valdosta State University
2014
Teacher of the Year — First Presbyterian Day School
2007
Professional Activities
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
International Paleolimnology Association
North American Lake Management Society
The International Society of Limnology
National Speleological Society
Research and Teaching Interests
My lab focuses on reconstructing paleoenvironments using paleolimnological techniques in order to understand how ecosystems changed in the past and to more effectively manage for the future. We collect sediment cores from lakes and reservoirs to document the materials entering these systems (nutrients, metals, charcoal, pollen) as well as the responses of the primary producer community (algae, cyanobacteria, macrophytes). Projects focus on large scale ecosystem change (eutrophication, HABs, brownification, siltation, alt-ecosystem states) from human, climate and other environmental impacts. Recently, we have also started investigating guano cores from caves to reconstruct paleoenvironments of bat communities.
Selected Publications
- Patrick, C. H., M. N. Waters and S. W. Golladay. Accepted. The distribution and ecological role of Corbicula fluminea in a large and shallow reservoir. Bioinvasions Records.
- Campbell, J. W., M. N. Waters and F Rich. Online First. Guano core evidence of paleoenvironmental change and Woodland Indian inhabitance in Fern Cave, Alabama, USA, from the mid-Holocene to present. Boreas DOI: 10.1111/bor.12228.ISSN0300-9483
- Bielmyer-Fraser, G. K., M. N. Waters, C. G. Duckworth, P. P. Patel, B. C. Webster et al. Online First. Assessment of metal contamination in the biota of four rivers experiencing varying degrees of human impact. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment DOI: 10.1007/s10661-016-5738-9
- Waters, M. N. 2016. A 4,700-year history of cyanobacteria toxin production in a shallow subtropical lake. Ecosystems 19:426-436. DOI: 10.1007/s10021-015-9943-0
- Waters, M. N., C. L. Schelske, and M. Brenner. 2015. Cyanobacterial dynamics in shallow Lake Apopka (Florida, U.S.A.) before and after the shift from a macrophyte-dominated to a phytoplankton-dominated state. Freshwater Biology 60:1571-1580. doi:10.1111/fwb.12589
Last updated: 06/06/2022