{"id":7,"date":"2026-06-25T14:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2026-08-15T02:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T02:11:10","slug":"overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-link-color blue-message wp-elements-f3b6b36c237cce1b27c4d4e32eb0602c wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:22px\"><strong>Education<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1260f1a266c7ab9da0cee70bdb086471\" style=\"font-size:16px\">PhD, 2019, Aquatic Resources, Texas State University<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e4d9626196197ea883e59f8ee69c0826\" style=\"font-size:16px\">MS, 2013, Environmental Science, University of Houston-Clear Lake<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-36b835b8b97fce643514d3575847a81c\" style=\"font-size:16px\">MS, 2010, Oceanography and Fisheries Science, University of Mumbai<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7511cfcf93faa8279ce5899ee8787165\" style=\"font-size:16px\">BS, 2008, Zoology, University of Mumbai<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-link-color blue-message wp-elements-7a50b92dd0e7bde2d474a3bc64a2d6b9 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:22px\"><strong>Courses Taught<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-4fc3f8e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-cfe62ef1402cc4eaebdbf7d5b160b5a7\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Oceanography (EASC 3340)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9b0805548d7195b60c9e84684143ce30\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Systems Thinking (ENVS 3307)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-577be44602fc397876ef6a3c100b165a\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Environmental Science Capstone (ENVS 4380)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-90b4e27d6745f656bea5fa8bb76a1732\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Advanced Oceanography (ENVS 5345)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-fe783c77dd1f616579c9b646aab8283f\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Graduate Seminar (Groundwater ecology, Isotope ecology) (ENVS 5187)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4873978bcfcbef825b26b4749e0c7b8a\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Research and Analytical Methods (ENVS 5370)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c621b91f6f75c9f3831243bb88ce7da8\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Issues in Water Resources (ENVS 5320)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:22px\" class=\"blue-message wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>About me<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-790c91d01ea74fdb1dedbe7ecef9103a wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">I am an assistant professor of environmental science in the Department of Chemistry, Geosciences, and Physics at Tarleton State University.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e6dc24950d5d4840ced5eb1c9aa239a8 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">My overall teaching philosophy is to provide students with learning experiences that strengthen their observation and critical-thinking skills. I strive to create a supportive learning environment where students can actively engage with concepts, develop and articulate their ideas, and practice communicating them effectively through written and oral formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6ab79362015584610ce372bb9f3a6aef wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">I lead an ecology lab where I apply a biochemical approach to tracing trophic interactions in aquatic food webs. My research seeks to understand how resource pulses and local and global stressors affect prey-predator dynamics and nutrient cycling in food webs, and how these factors ultimately shape ecosystem resilience and functioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3efa6fbd37949ff1a371c8b6c94b70b8 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">Before joining Tarleton State, I served as a postdoctoral fellow at Texas State University, where I studied how biological communities change across spatial and temporal scales. Prior to that, I was the Co-PI on an NSF grant that demonstrated that demonstrated that fish egg boons represent a pathway for counter-gradient flow of nutrients from larger to smaller organisms in marine ecosystems at the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-blue-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a788083fd62ee9841374e877f08f260b wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">I earned my Ph.D. in aquatic resources from Texas State University, where my dissertation focused on the ecophysiology and food web dynamics of spring ecotone communities in the Edwards Aquifer. I also hold a master\u2019s degree in environmental science from University of Houston-Clear Lake, along with degrees in oceanography, fisheries, and zoology from the University of Mumbai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Education Courses Taught About me I am an assistant professor of environmental science in the Department of Chemistry, Geosciences, and Physics at Tarleton State University. My overall teaching philosophy is to provide students with learning experiences that strengthen their observation and critical-thinking skills. I strive to create a supportive learning environment where students can actively &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Home<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/author\/kbuchanantarleton-edu\/","display_name":"Buchanan , Keegan"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 months ago","modified":"Updated 2 days ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 25, 2026","modified":"Updated on August 15, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 25, 2026 2:37 pm","modified":"Updated on August 15, 2026 2:11 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","featured_img":false,"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.tarleton.edu\/nair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}