Rebecka Brasso
Department of Zoology
Weber State University
Tracy Hall Science Center Rm 309
T1415 Edvalson St., Dept. 2505
Ogden, UT 84408-2505
email: rebeckabrasso@weber.edu

Dr. Brasso is an Assistant Professor of urban ecology in the Zoology Department at Weber State University. Her research primarily involves using songbirds as biomonitors of heavy metal contamination across terrestrial, aquatic, and marine food webs. She is particularly interested in the variation in local environmental conditions and food web interactions that drive the risk of exposure to harmful concentrations of metals. Her master’s research used Tree Swallows as biomonitors of mercury (Hg) availability along the contaminated South River, VA, while her PhD research used Pygoscelis penguins as biomonitors of Hg in the Antarctic marine food web. During her time as an assistant professor at Southeast Missouri State University she completed a multi-year project investigating the effects of legacy lead (Pb) contamination on breeding songbirds in the Southeast Missouri Mining District. Now in Ogden, Utah, Dr. Brasso continues to use songbirds, and more recently spiders, to track local and regional-scale variation in Hg exposure in wetland ecosystems.

B.S. (Marine Biology) University of North Carolina Wilmington
M.S. (Biology) The College of William and Mary
Ph.D. (Marine Biology) University of North Carolina Wilmington