Summary
Aaron is a freshwater conservation ecologist interested in understanding the impacts of harvest on aquatic animal communities and ecosystem function, and how conservation interventions can improve outcomes that sustain aquatic diversity and human needs.
Aaron first developed an interest in understanding the impacts of harvest on freshwater ecosystems over four years teaching field-based courses on sustainability while embedded within local communities throughout Thailand. During his research as a PhD student at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology (advised by Pete McIntyre) and as a Cornell Atkinson Sustainability Postdoctoral Fellowship (co-created with Robin Abell of Conservation International and Michele Thieme of World Wildlife Fund), Aaron had the privilege of living with and learning from ethnic Karen (P’gan’yaw) communities in northern Thailand. He focused on the ecological effects of both intensive subsistence fisheries and freshwater reserve protection by these communities. Aaron was awarded the 2023 Hynes Award for New Investigators by the Society for Freshwater Science for this work, which translates into the language of conservation scientists what these communities have recognized over the past three decades—that small reserves can have profound effects on entire riverine ecosystems.
Aaron is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working with Zeb Hogan and Sudeep Chandra on the Wonders of the Mekong Project based in the Global Water Center and Department of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno and a National Geographic Young Explorer. He continues to seek effective models of place-based protection for fish and fisheries around the world, with an emphasis on Southeast Asia.
Research interests
- Freshwater ecology
- Community-based conservation
- Inland fisheries
- Area-based protection
- Trophic dynamics of freshwater systems
Supervisor: Zeb Hogan
Education
- Cornell Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cornell University, 2018-2020
- Ph.D. in Zoology, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2018
- B.S. in Biology, Wheaton College, 2007
Selected publications
- Koning AA and McIntyre PB. 2021 Grassroots conservation reserves rescue a river food web from cascading impacts of intensive fishing. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
- Koning AA, Perales KM, Fluet-Chouinard E, McIntyre PB. 2020. A network of grassroots reserves protects tropical river fish diversity. Nature 588:631–635.
- Koning AA et al. 2017. Aquatic ecosystem impacts of land sharing versus sparing: nutrient loading to Southeast Asian rivers. Ecosystems 20(2):393–405.
Professional certifications
- National Geographic Society Young Explorer