Zoe Almeida
Senior Research Associate, Natural Resources and the Environment
Zoe Almeida is a Senior Research Associate based at the Cornell Biological Field Station on Oneida Lake. She has broad training in aquatic ecology and her research addresses fundamental ecological questions while focusing on managing and conserving fishes. Zoe has conducted research across small lakes, the Laurentian Great Lakes, and marine environments using laboratory and field experiments as well as statistical and simulation modeling. She enjoys working closely with students, management agencies, and stakeholders interested in understanding underlying drivers of population dynamics and science-based management. Her recent research has focused on questions related to effects of warming and food quality during early life on immediate responses (phenology, growth, survival) as well as long-term consequences to individuals (later life growth) and the population (recruitment).
Education
The Ohio State University, Ph.D., Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, May 2021
Purdue University, M.Sc., Forestry and Natural Resources: Aquatic Sciences, Ecological Sciences and Engineering Program, May 2016
Scripps College, B.A., Biology, May 2011
Recent Research
Broadly, Zoe’s research aims to advance knowledge relevant to aquatic resource conservation and management, primarily freshwater fish, by addressing fundamental questions in ecology. Her questions build across levels of biological organization from individuals to populations to ecosystems: 1) individual behavioral and physiological responses to environmental conditions; 2) cohort effects and population dynamics informed by individual responses; and 3) synthesizing ecological trends across populations, ecosystems, and species. To address these themes, she examines physiological and behavioral ecology in laboratory and field experiments, quantifies the effect of individual responses on cohorts and populations, uses simulation modeling to evaluate larger population or community-level implications, and integrates findings across studies to illuminate broader ecological patterns.
Currently, her research focuses on warmwater fish ecology and management throughout the state of New York.
Selected Publications
- Krabbenhoft, C.A., S.A. Ludsin, E.A. Marschall, R.R. Budnick, L.Z. Almeida, C.L. Cahill, … G.J.A. Hansen. 2023. Synthesizing professional opinion and published science to build a conceptual model of Walleye recruitment. Fisheries, 48(4), 141-156. DOI: 10.1002/fsh.10884.
- Almeida, L.Z., J.D. Grayson, S.A. Ludsin, K. Dabrowski, E.A. Marschall. 2023. Experiential legacies of early-life dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content on juvenile Walleye: Potential impacts from climate change. Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 32, 23-36. DOI:10.1111/eff.12666.
- Almeida, L.Z., T.M. Sesterhenn, D.K. Rucinski, T.O. Höök. 2022. Nutrient loading effects on fish habitat quality: Trade-offs between production and hypoxia in Lake Erie, North America. Freshwater Biology, 67, 784-800. DOI: 10.1111/FWB.13881.
- Almeida, L.Z., S.M. Hovick, S.A. Ludsin, E.A. Marschall. 2021. Which factors determine the long-term effects of poor early life nutrition? A meta-analytic review. Ecosphere, 12(8):e03694. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3694.
Contact Information
Cornell Biological Field Station
Bridgeport, NY 13030
lza3 [at] cornell.edu
Zoe in the news
News
- Biological Field Station
- Natural Resources and the Environment
- Natural Resources