Faculty Profile for Dr. Tim Bonner

Biography Section

Biography and Education

I earned a PhD in Fisheries Science from Texas Tech University in 2000. My dissertation and subsequent publications addressed water quantity issues within prairie streams of central USA.

Research Interests

I am an interdisciplinary aquatic scientist with 22 years of experience as a professor and 31 years of experience in field research, including assessments of aquatic communities (i.e., aquatic insects, mussels, and fishes) and environments (i.e., water quality and water quantity/instream flows/environmental flows). My students and I, along with numerous collaborators, quantify population and community patterns and develop, test, or refine theoretical models to understand the patterns. An accurate understanding of processes and patterns is necessary to predict, manage, and mitigate the effects of past, current, and future anthropogenic stressors (e.g., instream flow modifications, water quality, climate change) on aquatic communities. As an active researcher, I have developed expertise in Texas fishes, co-authoring “The Freshwater Fishes of Texas” book (2007), maintaining Texas inland fish checklist and dichotomous keys (Craig and Bonner 2019), co-teaching Mussel and Fish identification Short Course through TxState Continuing Education (2014 – 2023), and advising state and federal authorities on the status of imperiled mussels and fishes.