Wiebke Boeing, Professor, New Mexico State University

By Jeanette Torres, NM WRRI Program Specialist

Wiebke Boeing is an Aquatic Ecology professor at New Mexico State University for the Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Ecology (FWCE) Department in the Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences college. Her areas of expertise include researching natural aquatic communities, such as the impacts of environmental factors or pollution in reservoirs on aquatic organisms and restoration efforts as well as aquaponics to grow algae, plants, shrimp or fish. She is currently mentoring nine undergraduate and four graduate students. Empowering and encouraging students to become thoughtful stewards of aquatic resources is one of her passions, and she considers it to be one of the most meaningful and essential aspects of her position. Boeing will teach two courses related to Wildlife Ecology and Professional Experience and Communication in the upcoming fall semester.

Boeing has been associated with the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (NM WRRI) for many years by teaching classes for the Water Science and Management Degree Program, collaborating on grant proposals, and receiving funding for her research through competitive grants. She welcomes future work with NM WRRI on projects that focus on reclaiming wastewater or produced water, and improving water quality to benefit humans and aquatic organisms.

According to Boeing, some of the most significant issues in her research field of aquatic ecology are most commonly seen in the arid Southwest. These problems typically begin with humans using water for personal gain without regard for the well-being of other organisms (e.g., fish and larval stages of invertebrates) that directly influence the health and functioning of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. “We use water for domestic, industrial, agricultural, and recreational purposes… Often taking all the water, [causing] other organisms to suffer. In Las Cruces, it goes to the extreme where the Rio Grande is dry for many months during “non-irrigation season,” Boeing explains.

Boeing works closely with her graduate students and is thoroughly involved in their research. Currently, she is assisting in four student-related projects and two of her own. These research efforts include growing food and fish via aquaponics, investigating the macroinvertebrate species composition before and after playa lakes and reservoirs, restoring riparian areas, and increasing algae biomass for fuel production. Boeing’s personal research consists of learning how prescribed burns affect an endangered species of microsnail and reviewing how contaminants, like microplastics and antibiotics, impact reservoirs globally.

Boeing earned her BS in Biology from the University of Potsdam, Germany, and her MS in Hydrobiology from Dresden University of Technology, Germany. Boeing’s PhD in Aquatic Ecology was later achieved from Louisiana State University. “I have always felt an affinity for nature and water in particular,” Boeing describes, “While I’ve always had a hard time picturing myself more than one step ahead of where I was, I enjoyed research and what I was doing and stuck with it. After receiving my BS and MS in Germany, I came to the US for my PhD, then accepted a couple of post-doc positions before landing the professorship at NMSU.”

Boeing mentions that she has two goals she would like to accomplish regarding her water research. She would like to be involved in supporting research to enhance artificial systems responsible for growing algae for biofuel production and advancing the efficiency of aquaponic plant/fish systems. Such improvements would primarily be made by applying polycultures instead of monocultures. Boeing would also like to establish new ways to inform managers on how to conserve native organisms that occur in the Southwest’s very limited aquatic ecosystems. “Let’s allow some surface waters to exist for our fish and wildlife,” Boeing exclaims, “Sharing is caring!”