Ray Drenner, Ph.D.

I am a freshwater ecologist who studies pond and lake ecosystems. My research has primarily focused on predator-prey interactions in lake systems and their role in mercury contamination of the environment. Recent areas of interest include the trophic transfer of mercury between aquatic and terrestrial food webs and factors that lead to spatial variation in the mercury contamination of organisms at a variety of scales. I have used a combination of field surveys, experiments and GIS-based approaches in my research. I have had a longstanding collaboration with Dr. Matt Chumchal in the TCU Biology Department, and we work as a team on many research projects and serve as co-advisors for undergraduate and graduate students that work in our lab on mercury contamination. For more information, please visit our Aquatic Ecology Lab website: www.aquaticecologylab.tcu.edu

 

• Drenner, R.W., M.M. Chumchal, C.M. Jones, Christopher M. B. Lehmann, David A.Gay, David I. Donato. 2013. Effects of mercury deposition and coniferous forests on the mercury contamination of fish in the south central United States, Environmental Science and Technology 47: 1274-1279.
• Tweedy, B.N., R.W. Drenner, M.M. Chumchal, J.H. Kennedy. 2013. Effects of fish on emergent insect-mediated flux of methyl mercury across a gradient of contamination, Environmental Science and Technology 47: 1614-1619.
• Chumchall, M.M. and R.W. Drenner.  2015.  An environmental problem hidden in plain sight? Small human-made ponds, emergent insects, and mercury contamination of biota in the Great Plains.  Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 34: 1197-1205.
• Gerstle, C., R.W. Drenner and M. M. Chumchal. 2018. Spatial patterns of mercury contamination and associated risk to piscivorous wading birds of the south central United States.  Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 38: 160-166. 
• Ortega‐Rodriguez, C., M. M. Chumchal, R. W. Drenner, J. H. Kennedy, W. H. Nowlin, B. D. Barst, D. K. Polk, M. N. Hall, E. B. Williams, K. C. Lauck, A. Santa‐Rios and N. Basu, 2019. Relationship between methylmercury contamination and proportion of aquatic and terrestrial prey in diets of shoreline spiders.  Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 38:2503-2508.

• 2000 Dean's Teaching Award, Texas Christian University
• 2004 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, Texas Christian University
• 2005 Distinguished Service Award, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
• 2009 Outstanding Fisheries Worker Award, Texas Chapter, American Fisheries Society
• 2013 Dow Chemical Award for Innovation in Mercury Science, International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Edinburgh, Scotland

• American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
• Society for Freshwater Science