My research focuses on evolutionary ecology of maternal investment strategies in fishes, the structure of North American freshwater fish assemblages, and the interface between life history and community ecology. My current studies include the role of post-fertilization nutrient transfer in the life history of the livebearing fishes, the stress effects on patterns of maternal provisioning, long-term changes in fish assemblages of the Great Plains, the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors structuring fish communities, and the biology of invasive fishes in their native range. 

• Marsh-Matthews E,  Thompson J, Matthews WJ, Geheber A., Franssen N, Barkstedt J. 2013. Differential survival of two minnow species under experimental sunfish predation: implications for re-invasion of a species into its native range. Freshwater Biology 58:1745-1754. doi:10.1111/fwb.12165

• Matthews WJ, Marsh-Matthews E, Cashner RC, Gelwick FP. 2013. Disturbance and trajectory of change in a stream fish community over four decades. Oecologia 173:955-969. doi 10.1007/s00442-013-2646-3.

• Gillette DP, Fortner AM, Franssen NR, Cartwright S,  Tobler CM, Wesner JS, Reneau PC, Reneau FH, Schlupp I, Marsh-Matthews EC, Matthews WJ, Broughton RE, Lee CW.  2012. Patterns of change over time in darter (Teleostei: Percidae) assemblages of the Arkansas River basin, northeastern Oklahoma, USA. Ecography 35:1-10.

• Marsh-Matthews  E. 2011. Matrotrophy. Chapter 2. Pages 18-27 in: Ecology and Evolution of Poeciliid Fishes. (J. Evans, A. Pilastro and I. Schlupp, editors).University of Chicago Press.

• Marsh-Matthews E, Matthews WJ, and Franssen NR. 2011. Can a highly invasive species re-invade its native community? The paradox of the red shiner. Biological Invasions 13:2911-2924. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-011-9973-2.

• Matthews WJ, Marsh-Matthews E.  2011. An invasive fish species within its native range: community effects and population dynamics of  Gambusia affinis in the central United States. Freshwater Biology 56:2609-2619. 

• Knapp R, Marsh-Matthews E, Vo L and Rosencrans S. 2011. Stress hormone masculinizes morphology and behavior. Biology Letters 7:150-152. DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0514

• Marsh-Matthews E, Deaton R, Brooks M. 2010. Survey of matrotrophy in lecithotrophic poeciliids. Pages 255-258 in: Viviparous Fishes II, the proceedings of the III International Symposium on Viviparous Fishes. (M. C. Uribe and H. J. Grier, editors). New Life Publications, Homestead, FL.

• Marsh-Matthews E, Matthews WJ. 2010. Proximate and residual effects of exposure to simulated drought on prairie stream fishes. Pages 461-486 in: Community Ecology of Stream Fishes (K. Gido and D. Jackson, editors). Symposium 73. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.

• Riesch RM , Plath M, Schlupp I, Marsh-Matthews E. 2010. Matrotrophy in the cave molly: an unexpected provisioning strategy in an extreme environment. Evolutionary Ecology 24:789-801 DOI: 10.1007/s10682-9335-z

• Cashner RC, Matthews WJ, Marsh-Matthews E,  Unmack PJ, Cashner FM. 2010. Recognition and redescription of a distinctive stoneroller from the southern Interior Highlands Copeia 2010: 300-311.