Science Operations Manager, Senior Scientist
B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; M.S. Population Biology
Phone: (916) 250-2203

West Sacramento, California

Kirsten is a Senior Scientist in the CFS River Science and Restoration lab in West Sacramento, California. She is responsible for coordinating and leading field efforts for monitoring and restoration projects throughout the Central Valley. Kirsten has 16 years of experience conducting field-based fisheries studies and has written and edited numerous scientific manuscripts and technical reports related to river restoration, spawning and outmigration monitoring, community ecology, invasive species, and restoration prioritization. She has extensive experience with state and federal permitting, particularly for restoration projects. She trains technicians and biologists and has developed field and laboratory protocols, study designs, and safety protocols for field monitoring.

Selected Publications

Merz, J. E., L. Caldwell, M. Beakes, C. Hammersmark, and K. Sellheim. 2018. Balancing competing life stage requirements in salmon habitat rehabilitation: between a rock and a hard place. Restoration Ecology. Early View only. DOI: 10.1111/rec.12900.

Sellheim, K., M. Willmes, J. A. Hobbs, J. J. G. Glessner, Z. J. Jackson, and J. E. Merz. 2017. Validating fin ray microchemistry as a tool to reconstruct the migratory history of white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 146(5):844-857.

Sellheim, K., M. Vaghti, and J. Merz. 2016. Vegetation recruitment in an enhanced floodplain: ancillary benefits of salmonid habitat enhancement. Limnologica 58:94-102.

Sellheim, K., C. Watry, B. Rook, S. Zeug, J. Hannon, J. Zimmerman, K. Dove, and J. Merz. 2015. Juvenile salmonid utilization of floodplain rearing habitat after gravel augmentation in a regulated river. River Research and Applications 32(4):610-621.

Zeug, S. C., K. Sellheim, C. Watry, J. D. Wikert, and J. Merz. 2014. Response of juvenile anadromous salmon to managed flow: lessons learned from the southern extent of Chinook salmon in North America. Fisheries Management and Ecology 21(2):155-168.

Anderson, I. J., M. K. Saiki, K. Sellheim, and J. E. Merz. 2014. Differences in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages associated with a bloom of Didymosphenia geminata in the Lower American River, California. The Southwestern Naturalist 59(3):389-395.

Zeug, S. C., K. Sellheim, C. Watry, B. Rook, J. Hannon, J. Zimmerman, D. Cox, and J. Merz. 2014. Gravel augmentation increases spawning utilization by anadromous salmonids: a case study from California, USA. River Research and Applications 30(6):707-718.

Edwards, K. F., K. M. Aquilino, R. J. Best, K. L. Sellheim, and J. J. Stachowicz. 2010. Prey diversity is associated with weaker consumer effects in a meta- analysis of benthic marine experiments. Ecology Letters 13(2): 194-201.

Sellheim, K. L., J. J. Stachowicz, and R. C. Coates. 2010. Effects of a nonnative habitat-forming species on mobile and sessile epifaunal communities. Marine Ecology Progress Series 398: 69-80.

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