Rick Relyea

Professor and David M. Darrin '40 Senior Endowed Chair; Acting Head of Earth & Env. Sciences, Former Director of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute and The Jefferson Project (2014-2022)

About

Dr. Relyea completed his PhD at the University of Michigan in 1999 and spent the next 15 years as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2014, he moved to Rensselaer to become the Director of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute and the Founding Director of The Jefferson Project at Lake George. In July 2022, he stepped down from being a director to spend a year-long sabbatical in Ireland. In 2024, he was named the Acting Head of Earth & Environmental Sciences.

Complete list of published journal articles

Complete list of published textbooks

Education & Training

Ph.D. The University of Michigan, 1999 - Biology

M.S. Texas Tech University, 1992 - Wildlife Science

B.S. SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, 1989 - Environmental and Forest Biology

Other affililations: Darrin Fresh Water Institute (DFWI), Earth and Environmental Sciences

Research

Our research group combines long-term field surveys, experiments, and computer models to investigate topics related to understanding and protecting freshwater ecosystems.  Our areas of interest are wide ranging and include foundational and applied approaches that have major conservation implications:  community ecology, limnology, ecotoxicology, phenotypic plasticity, sexual selection, animal mating systems, forest inputs to wetlands, disease ecology, and invasive species.  We approach this work from multiple disciplines and we work with a diversity of aquatic organisms.

Other Focus Areas

Ecology, Disease ecology, Ecotoxicology, Evolution, Animal behavior

Teaching

Office Hours

By appointment

Current Courses

BIOL 4850 - Principles of Ecology 

A study of the fundamental principles of the ecology of plants and animals. Interrelationships between organisms and their environments are discussed as well as material and energy balances in the ecosystem. Emphasis on the biology of populations (producers, consumers, and decomposers).

Publications

The following is a selection of recent publications in Scopus. Rick Relyea has 211 indexed publications in the subjects of Environmental Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Medicine.

Manuel Castro Berman, Allison R. Hrycik, Angelica Costello, Yang Bai, Kevin C. Rose, Rick Relyea, Jonathan S. Dordick
Ecological Indicators
, 159
, 2024
.
Michael F. Benard, David J. Burke, Sarah R. Carrino-Kyker, Katherine Krynak, Rick A. Relyea
Oecologia
, 205
, 2024
, pp.655-667
.
Sarah K. Woodley, Gabriela Agostini, Devin K. Jones, Rick A. Relyea
Environmental Pollution
, 362
, 2024
.
Devin K. Jones, Devin G. DiGiacopo, Brian M. Mattes, Erika Yates, Jessica Hua, Jason T. Hoverman, Rick A. Relyea
Aquatic Toxicology
, 272
, 2024
.
Rick Relyea, Brian Mattes, Candace Schermerhorn, Isaac Shepard
Ecology and Evolution
, 14
, 2024
.
Jonathan J. Borrelli, Matthew S. Schuler, William D. Hintz, Brian Mattes, Candace Schermerhorn, Erika Yates, Lawrence W. Eichler, Mark A. Lucius, Laurie Ahrens, Rick A. Relyea
Aquatic Sciences
, 86
, 2024
.
Michael R. Kelly, Vincent W. Moriarty, Harry R. Kolar, Guillaume A.R. Auger, Michael E. Henderson, Campbell D. Watson, Rick A. Relyea, Christopher A. Scholz, Charles T. Driscoll, Kevin C. Rose
Limnology and Oceanography
, 69
, 2024
, pp.1826-1844
.
Shelley E. Arnott, Vincent Fugère, Celia C. Symons, Stephanie J. Melles, Beatrix E. Beisner, Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, Marie Pier Hébert, Jennifer A. Brentrup, Amy L. Downing, Derek K. Gray, Danielle Greco, William D. Hintz, Alexandra McClymont, Rick A. Relyea, James A. Rusak, Catherine L. Searle, Louis Astorg, Henry K. Baker, Zeynep Ersoy, Carmen Espinosa, Jaclyn M. Franceschini, Angelina T. Giorgio, Norman Göbeler, Emily Hassal, Mercedes Huynh, Samuel Hylander, Kacie L. Jonasen, Andrea Kirkwood, Silke Langenheder, Ola Langvall, Hjalmar Laudon, Lovisa Lind, Maria Lundgren, Emma R. Moffett, Lorenzo Proia, Matthew S. Schuler, Jonathan B. Shurin, Christopher F. Steiner, Maren Striebel, Simon Thibodeau, Pablo Urrutia Cordero, Lidia Vendrell-Puigmitja, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Alison M. Derry
Limnology And Oceanography Letters
, 8
, 2023
, pp.8-18
.
Marie Pier Hébert, Celia C. Symons, Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, Shelley E. Arnott, Alison M. Derry, Vincent Fugère, William D. Hintz, Stephanie J. Melles, Louis Astorg, Henry K. Baker, Jennifer A. Brentrup, Amy L. Downing, Zeynep Ersoy, Carmen Espinosa, Jaclyn M. Franceschini, Angelina T. Giorgio, Norman Göbeler, Derek K. Gray, Danielle Greco, Emily Hassal, Mercedes Huynh, Samuel Hylander, Kacie L. Jonasen, Andrea Kirkwood, Silke Langenheder, Ola Langvall, Hjalmar Laudon, Lovisa Lind, Maria Lundgren, Alexandra McClymont, Lorenzo Proia, Rick A. Relyea, James A. Rusak, Matthew S. Schuler, Catherine L. Searle, Jonathan B. Shurin, Christopher F. Steiner, Maren Striebel, Simon Thibodeau, Pablo Urrutia Cordero, Lidia Vendrell-Puigmitja, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Beatrix E. Beisner
Limnology And Oceanography Letters
, 8
, 2023
, pp.19-29
.
Rick A. Relyea, Candace X. Schermerhorn, Brian M. Mattes, Isaac D. Shepard
Environmental Pollution
, 337
, 2023
.

News

Back to top