Gretchen Hansen

Gretchen Hansen
Associate Professor
she/her
[email protected]
Hansen Lab
Twitter
Education
  • B.S., Biology, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • M.S., Fisheries & Wildlife, Michigan State University
  • Ph.D. Limnology & Marine Science, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Postdoc, Fisheries, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Biography

Dr. Gretchen Hansen is an associate professor in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Department at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on large scale drivers of change in freshwater ecosystems, including climate, land use, and invasive species. She is especially interested in how local management and lake characteristics influence the resilience of fish populations and communities to regional and global change. Gretchen previously worked as a research scientist for state fisheries management agencies, and is committing to conducting actionable science via collaboration with stakeholders and managers. To answer complex questions she employs multiple approaches including statistical analyses of historical data, observational field studies, simulation modeling, and large-scale experimentation.

Research

Select Publications

Rounds, C. I., Arnold, T. W., Chun, C. L., Dumke, J., Totsch, A., Keppers, A., Edblad, K., García, S. M., Larson, E. R., Nelson, J. K. R., & Hansen, G. J. A. (2024). Aquatic invasive species exhibit contrasting seasonal detectability patterns based on environmental DNA: Implications for monitoring. Freshwater Biology, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.14320
 
Thomas, S. M., Verhoeven, M. R., Walsh, J. R., Larkin, D. J., & Hansen, G. J. A. (2024). Improving species distribution forecasts by measuring and communicating uncertainty: An invasive species case study. Ecology, n/a(n/a), e4297. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4297

García, S. M., Chun, C. L., Dumke, J., Hansen, G. J. A., Quebedeaux, K. B., Rounds, C., Totsch, A., & Larson, E. R. (2024). Environmental DNA storage and extraction method affects detectability for multiple aquatic invasive species. Environmental DNA, 6(3), e557. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.557
 
Bethke, B. J., Rantala, H. M., Ahrenstorff, T. D., Kelly, H. A. W., Kovalenko, K. E., Maki, R. P., Hirsch, J. K., Dumke, J. D., Brady, V. J., LeDuc, J. F., & Hansen, G. J. A. (2023). Walleye and yellow perch resource use in large lakes invaded by spiny water fleas and zebra mussels. Aquatic Ecology. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-023-10030-0

Hansen, G. J. A., Ahrenstorff, T. D., Bethke, B. J., Dumke, J. D., Hirsch, J., Kovalenko, K. E., LeDuc, J. F., Maki, R. P., Rantala, H. M., & Wagner, T. (2020). Walleye growth declines following zebra mussel and Bythotrephes invasion. Biological Invasions, 22(4), 1481–1495. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02198-5

Thomas, S. M., Verhoeven, M. R., Walsh, J. R., Larkin, D. J., & Hansen, G. J. A. (2021). Species distribution models for invasive Eurasian watermilfoil highlight the importance of data quality and limitations of discrimination accuracy metrics. Ecology and Evolution, 11(18), 12567–12582. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8002

Wellard Kelly, H. A., Kovalenko, K. E., Ahrenstorff, T. D., Bethke, B. J., Brady, V. J., Dumke, J. D., Hansen, G. J. A., & Rantala, H. M. (2021). Trophic complexity of small fish in nearshore food webs. Hydrobiologia, 848(10), 2505–2521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04570-5