Rachel Malison

A freshwater ecologist, Rachel Malison combines fieldwork with laboratory experiments, monitoring and community outreach to understand how aquatic ecosystems function — and how to protect them. Growing up in the wild landscapes of northern Idaho inspired her lifelong interest in river systems. After earning her Ph.D., Malison received the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship to conduct ecological research in Norway for three years. She returned to Montana to work where her passion for rivers, biodiversity and hands-on science took root at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) during her undergraduate field courses. At FLBS, her field-intensive studies on ecologically critical stoneflies revealed surprising adaptations in aquifer-dwelling species, such as the use of hemocyanin for respiration in oxygen-poor underground waters, and helped us better understand extreme freshwater environments.

Through Malison’s work at FLBS and with the University of Montana’s Ecology & Evolution Program, she leads a dynamic team conducting fieldwork across western Montana and beyond. Her group’s research spans the genetics and physiology of aquatic insects, population and community ecology of large river floodplains, and how organisms like stoneflies and salmon respond to stressors such as wildfire, metals and other pollutants. She is an expert on the interactions between beavers and salmon and studied them in both Alaska and Norway. Her recent research includes investigating how man-made beaver dams have the potential to restore degraded freshwater habitats. 

Malison is committed to applied conservation and community science to further understand and preserve the lifeblood of western landscapes: freshwater. Through her Monitoring Montana Waters program, Malison supports community-led watershed groups across the state. She recently launched a Pesticide Stewardship Partnership Program in the Columbia River Basin in western Montana. Learn more about Malison’s work here.