Jonathan Higgins Bio | The Nature Conservancy

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Freshwater: Jonathan Higgins, Ph.D.

Profile

Jonathan Higgins Ph.D., Senior Freshwater Ecologist, Great Rivers Partnership © Michael Reuter

Jonathan Higgins, Ph.D.

Senior Freshwater Ecologist, Great Rivers Partnership

Contact Information

E-mail: jhiggins@TNC.ORG

Brief Biography

“I grew up fishing the waters of the Upper Midwest, and their beauty and bounty caught me. Ideas and opportunities abound to ensure that rivers and lakes sustain their magnificence and the wealth of services they provide to people. We have to work together to make that happen.”

Jonathan Higgins has been involved in freshwater science and conservation for over 30 years. He currently supports The Nature Conservancy’s Great Rivers Partnership in developing and testing new conservation methods and tools; setting priorities for where and how to work; and measuring the effectiveness of efforts at the individual site, basin and global levels.

Jonathan has provided support to several large river basin projects, including China’s Yangtze River, Colombia’s Magdalena, the United States’ Mississippi, and to Water Fund projects across South America.

Before joining the Conservancy in 1995, he acted as the senior scientist and project manager for water quality and biological monitoring of Laurentian Great Lakes. There, he led a team of biologists and chemists in field surveys onboard The Lake Guardian research vessel, and was involved in developing new sampling and analysis methods.

Jonathan has provided technical assistance to over 70 regional conservation assessments across North, Central and South America, the Pacific islands and Asia. He has published numerous articles on ecosystem classification, conservation planning and water quality monitoring techniques and applications. Jonathan holds a BA in biology and anthropology from Grinnell College in Iowa, and an MS in wetland plant ecology and PhD in population ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He is an avid fly fisherman, gardener, cook and jazz pianist, and authors the provocative Straight, No Chaser column in the Conservancy’s Science Chronicles.