I am interested in exploring non-traditional approaches to promote habitat enhancement and maintenance, increase ecosystem resilience, and reduced effects of climate change on riparian systems at multiple scales. I’m also interested in evaluating how disturbances such as land use conversion and climate change drive species composition and life history strategies in riparian and wetland systems. My research explores how effective beaver can be at mitigating hydrologic alteration due to climate change. Changes in flow quantity, timing, and water quality are likely to drive these dynamics, creating future stable states in communities that are difficult to anticipate and manage. I am interested in identifying these types of changes to identify strategies to bolster resilience and inform management and policy decisions.

Dr. Dittbrenner teaches courses in stream ecology, wetland ecology, ecosystem management, environmental science, and sustainability. He is also the director of the Environmental Science and Policy Master’s program at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern, he taught at Seattle University, and worked for number of institutions including the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, and federal and local governments. He also founded the non-profit organization, Beavers Northwest. Dr. Dittbrenner is passionate about providing students with teaching and experiential opportunities to prepare them in becoming future environmental leaders.