How much impact from human activities can a freshwater ecosystem absorb before species disappear and key ecosystem services are threatened? And how does biodiversity loss interact with other stressors to impact important ecosystem functions? These are central questions for newly appointed Professor Brendan McKie, who investigates the mechanisms driving ecological transformation and their outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and the efficacy of different management solutions for addressing environmental degradation.
Brendan McKie's interest in aquatic life was sparked as a child during visits to Ginninderra Creek, a stream flowing near where he grew up in Canberra, Australia. This interest has followed him throughout his life and led him to a professorship in freshwater ecology at SLU, which he will take up in the spring of 2025.
- Lakes and streams support unique biodiversity, are of fundamental importance for all life on earth, and provide a number of essential ecosystem services for humanity. Freshwaters also often lie at the heart of our recreational life and are core elements of landscape beauty. Personally, I still think it is fantastic to stumble across a small stream walking in the forest, stop and listen to the running water and the other forest sounds, and think about where that water has come from and where it is going, says Brendan.
In Brendan's view, freshwaters are clearly among the world's most degraded ecosystems, since in draining the landscape they are inevitably impacted by stressors including nutrient enrichment, pesticides, water abstraction and river regulation. Understanding how these multiple stressors interact is essential if we are to effectively manage and protect the biodiversity, functioning and indeed the beauty of our freshwaters.
Brendan’s research addresses how nature's own dynamics interact with human demands on nature. He investigates freshwater biodiversity and the ecosystem functions that underpin important ecosystem services.
Grappling with these complex issues requires a broad perspective, extending from very small-scale interactions among species in a single stream to larger scale connections between between land and water, and incorporating effects of human activities on these connections. This is seen, for example, in the multiple factors that influence the outcomes of river habitat restoration.
- In our research on habitat restoration, we have investigated both how effectively the rehabilitation of riparian (stream-side) forest assists in improving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning not only at the site of restoration, but also further downstream. We also investigate how the outcomes of restoration are regulated by other human activities elsewhere in the catchment, such as agriculture and hydropower, says Brendan.
Brendan has a strong commitment to environmental analysis and monitoring, and often uses that data to study how stressors affect ecosystems and their functions. During his professorship, Brendan aims to promote experimental, field-based, and interdisciplinary work to understand the mechanisms that drive ecological change in freshwater. His goal is to support the development of effective and science-based environmental monitoring and water management.
- An environmental management that does not take into account the complexity of ecological change or societal needs and priorities, risks wasting money on ineffective measures or, in worst case, worsening the situation. The success for management of aquatic environments increases if the mechanisms behind changes are understood, and if different actors in the water sector are in all different stages of research, from setting research priorities and defining key questions, to communicating results and developing science-based management, concludes Brendan.
Brendan McKie was born in Canberra, Australia, in 1972. He completed his postgraduate studies at James Cook University (JCU), Townsville, Australia, and received his PhD in 2002 affiliated to the Division of Tropical Biology. The thesis is entitled “Multiscale abiotic, biotic and biogeographic influences on the ecology and distribution of lotic Chironomidae (Diptera) in the Australian Wet Tropics”.
After a postdoc period at the University of California Davis, USA, Brendan came to Sweden and Umeå University in 2002 to work on European projects focused on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in streams and soils. Since 2008, he has been employed by SLU at the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment in Uppsala. Brendan received his associate professorship in 2010, and became a senior lecturer in freshwater ecology in 2021.
Brendan has also had assignments within the Lake and Watercourses environmental monitoring program at SLU, been departmental contact person for aquatic invasive species and restoration issues, and acted as chairman of the faculty's associate professorship board. Brendan is currently Associate Editor for the scientific journal "Freshwater Biology".
Over the years, Brendan has been the main supervisor of five doctoral students, and has been an assistant supervisor for another seven doctoral students. He is also an experienced and appreciated educator, teaching on courses in environmental analysis, ecosystem functioning, and environmental management.