Current and Recent Funding E. Martinko, J. Thorp, M. Jakubauskas, et al. Development of watershed classification systems for diagnosis of biological impairment in watersheds and their receiving water bodies. EPA-STAR (2002-2005). This major grant focuses on the effects of landscape characteristics on streams and 40 rivers in the 4-State Central Plains area. We are developing criteria for classifying watersheds in order to guide efforts to protect and/or restore these ecosystems.
			Future Research Directions  Where people have been in life is not nearly as important as where they are going in the future! And to be brutally honest, access to research funding shapes our research destiny too. While I will continue a strong research focus at the community and ecosystem level in large rivers, I am also expanding my spatial scale to include landscape ecology, especially river-watershed interactions. I expect a significant fraction of my research will involve remote sensing, and I intend to develop stronger research areas involving river management (flow and access to slackwater areas), nutrient cycling (C and N), GIS science, and system productivity.. all focused on the biodiversity and functioning of large river ecosystems
	Research Focus in the Last Decade or So Since the late 1980s, I have focused almost all my research on large and great rivers. This has been a somewhat eclectic mix of fundamental and applied environmental topics, but the two primary areas of research have been studies of nutrient (carbon mostly) cycling through food webs and the roles of biotic interactions in shaping benthic and pelagic communities in rivers. For a further explanation of my recent research interests, you can either check out my web page on Recent, Representative Research Publications or refer to my Complete Publication List. The modern photo at the top shows a steamboat on the Ohio River					Australia and SE Asia
					Understanding the ecology of large rivers almost requires that you comprehend functioning of rivers in many regions of the world, because large rivers are rarer than the headwater streams studied by most lotic ecologists. Although my plans are still very tentative at this stage (i.e., I'm still seeking funds), I hope to be conducting collaborative research on dryland rivers in Australia and on a variety of large rivers in southeast Asia. I will be looking for students interested in this area too. In case you haven't deciphered the photograph at the top, it is a shy platypus!
	James H. Thorp Fall 2002