Dr. Kelsey Reider combines observation, experiments, and modeling to understand wildlife responses to climate change at the upper limits of the biosphere. Kelsey’s current research areas focus on amphibian ecology and include impacts of rapid deglaciation on aquatic habitat, shifting life histories and species distributions, host/pathogen dynamics of an emerging wildlife disease, and adaptations to life under extreme environmental conditions. She also studies ecosystem engineering by large mammals in tropical ecosystems at two elevational extremes, in lowland wet forests and alpine ecosystems.
Kelsey has led 37 research expeditions to the Sibinacocha watershed and has spent more than 1.6 years above 5000 m living and working there. She draws on her extensive experience on the front lines of climate change to improve science communication and engagement with the public and in university classrooms.