Mack
White

Aquatic ecologist. Postdoctoral Research Scientist at The Ohio State University.

Smallmouth Buffalo spawning migration in Citico Creek. Drone footage by Mack White.

What are the ecological causes and consequences of animal behaviors like movement and foraging? My research asks how global change reshapes these behaviors, and what that means for populations, communities, and the flow of nutrients and energy through ecosystems.

Mack White holding a clear viewer full of small stream fish

I work with Dr. Casey Pennock in the Aquatic Conservation & Ecology Lab at Ohio State, mostly in rivers of the Colorado River and Ohio River basins. Before that I earned my Ph.D. at Florida International University working in Everglades National Park.

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Forested ridgelines fading into cloud

What I work on

Mack holding a Common Snook on a boat

Animal movement

From acoustic telemetry to drone surveys, I track when, where, and why animals move, from Common Snook in the Gulf of Mexico to suckers in Appalachian streams.

Mack standing in a stream holding a sucker

Nutrients and food webs

From lakes to rivers and rivers to coral reefs, animals link seemingly disparate ecosystems by recycling nutrients and moving energy.

Mack lifting a large fish into a sampling boat on a muddy river

Rivers under global change

How flow loss, warming, and invasive species reshape native fish and aquatic insect communities in the Colorado River and Ohio River basins.

See publications

From the field

How I got here

  1. 2025 to nowThe Ohio State University, Postdoctoral Research Scientist
  2. 2021 to 2025Florida International University, Ph.D.
  3. 2019 to 2021Tennessee Technological University, M.S.
  4. 2018ORSANCO, Contractual Biologist
  5. 2017Trout Unlimited & US Forest Service, Watershed Restoration Technician
  6. 2013 to 2017Marshall University, B.S.

Want to collaborate or have questions?

mackwhiteecology@gmail.com