Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Sarah Laske, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Landscape ecology, community ecology, aquatic food webs, and the influence of extreme climates and hydrology on fish ecology

My research focuses primarily on three areas of fisheries research: aquatic food webs, community ecology, and effects of landscape processes and scale in Arctic and subarctic species and ecosystems. The rapidly changing climate in northern ecosystems is shifting the thermal landscape where species live, eliciting a biological response to that change. I am interested in how those changes will influence aquatic systems, including their species composition or diversity, trophic structure, or function. Often, however, there is little to no baseline information available, and study must begin with questions regarding species presence or assemblage composition. By using a suite of modeling tools, I can integrate data from individual fish, communities, and the environment in order to answer questions that are relevant to fishery managers, the public, and other stakeholder groups, while also adding to ecological understanding of high latitude ecosystems and communities. 

Professional Experience

  • 2017 – Present Fish Biologist, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage

  • 2016 – 2017 Student trainee (Ecology), USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage

  • 2011 – 2016 Graduate Research Assistant, Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks

  • 2010 – 2011 Research Assistant, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie

  • 2007 – 2010 Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie

  • 2005 – 2007 Fisheries Technician, Illinois Natural History Survey, Lake Michigan Biological Station, Zion, IL

  • 2003 – 2004 Fisheries Technician, Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, IL

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D. 2017 University of Alaska, Fairbanks Fisheries

  • M.S. 2010 University of Wyoming, Laramie Zoology

  • B.S. 2004 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution

Affiliations and Memberships*

  • American Fisheries Society

  • Society for Freshwater Science

Science and Products

*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government