Publications
Welcome to the Great Lakes Science Center's Publications page.
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Positioning aquatic animals with acoustic transmitters
Geolocating aquatic animals with acoustic tags has been ongoing for decades, relying on the detection of acoustic signals at multiple receivers with known positions to calculate a 2D or 3D position, and ultimately recreate the path of an aquatic animal from detections at fixed stations.This method of underwater geolocation is evolving with new software and hardware options available to help invest
Authors
Robert J. Lennox, Kim Aarestrup, Josep Alós, Robert Arlinghaus, Eneko Aspillaga, Michael G. Bertram, Kim Birnie-Gauvin, Tomas Brodin, Steven J. Cooke, Lotte S. Dahlmo, Félicie Dhellemmes, Karl Ø. Gjelland, Gustav Hellström, Henry Hershey, Christopher Holbrook, Thomas Klefoth, Susan K. Lowerre-Barbieri, Christopher T. Monk, Cecilie Iden Nilsen, Ina Pauwels, Renanel Pickholtz, Marie Prchalová, Jan Reubens, Milan Říha, David Villegas-Ríos, Knut Wiik Vollset, Samuel Westrelin, Henrik Baktoft
Food web changes reflected in age-0 piscivore diets and growth
Lake Erie walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) recruitment fluctuates annually and depends partially on their diet and growth during their first year of life. In recent decades, age-0 walleye diet and growth may be responding to food web changes in western Lake Erie. To determine how age-0 walleye have responded to changes in prey species and abundance, we compared diet between 2019, 2014 and 1994–1999.
Authors
T. Yang, Christine M Mayer, Robin L. DeBruyne, Edward F. Roseman, Mark Richard Dufour, Eric J. Weimer
Genetic structure of the Silver Chub indicates distinctiveness of Lake Erie population
ObjectiveSilver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana is a small riverine minnow endemic to North American fresh waters. Its range extends from the southern USA to southcentral Canada; the latter includes a rare lacustrine population in Lake Erie. Anthropogenic activities pose an immediate threat to several Silver Chub populations, currently categorized from special concern to threatened at the state level
Authors
Ahmed Elbassiouny, Joao Pedro Fontenelle, Patrick M. Kočovský, Nicholas E. Mandrak, Nathan R Lovejoy
Conservation decision support for Silver Chub habitat in Lake Erie
ObjectiveConservation and restoration of aquatic species is difficult, especially for rare species, because their habitats are typically disturbed, obscuring the natural ability of the habitat to support each species. The Lake Erie population of Silver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana struggles to sustain itself in a habitat disturbed by a wide spectrum of anthropogenic factors. Application of multipl
Authors
James E. McKenna
Why are larger fish farther upstream? Testing multiple hypotheses using Silver Chub in two Midwestern United States riverscapes
ObjectiveThree competing hypotheses might explain the widely documented intrapopulation larger-fish-upstream phenomenon. The age-phased recruitment hypothesis posits that fish spawn downstream and move upstream as they age and grow, the static population with growth and mortality gradients hypothesis posits that fish spawn throughout a riverscape and growth is greater upstream while recruitment is
Authors
Joshuah S. Perkin, Patrick M. Kočovský, Zachary D Steffensmeier, Keith B. Gido
Lake sturgeon population trends in the St. Clair–Detroit River System, 2001–2019
Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens are listed as threatened or endangered in 15 states or provinces within their native range. Accordingly, investments in habitat and population restoration for this species have increased throughout the Great Lakes. To aide evaluation of restoration efficacy, robust population parameters are needed to inform management decisions. The St. Clair – Detroit River Syst
Authors
Justin A. Chiotti, James C. Boase, Andrew S Briggs, Chris Davis, Richard Drouin, Darryl W. Hondorp, Lloyd Mohr, Edward F. Roseman, Michael V. Thomas, Todd C. Wills
Seasonal habitat utilization provides evidence for site fidelity during both spawn and non-spawning seasons in Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi
The Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi population declined in the 20th century, and restoration of this species is a management objective. Management tools to restore cisco are limited because little is known about cisco spawning behavior and habitat use. We tagged 76 cisco from a remnant population in Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario with acoustic transmitters and characterized seasonal habitat use fr
Authors
Alexander J. Gatch, Dimitry Gorsky, Brian C. Weidel, Zy F. Biesinger, Michael J. Connerton, Cameron Davis, Hannah Lachance, Brian O'Malley
A decision framework for the management of established biological invasions
In some cases, managing an established invasive species may do more harm to an ecosystem than allowing the invader to persist. Given limited resources available to land managers and the realities of conservation triage, we recognized the need for systematic guidance for management decisions made at the “late end” of the invasion curve. We gathered an interdisciplinary group of experts and practiti
Authors
C. D. Robichaud, R. C. Rooney, B. M. H. Larson, S. E. Wolfe, Z. Nyssa, Kurt P. Kowalski, H. Braun
Dispersive currents explain patterns of population connectivity in an ecologically and economically important fish
How to identify the drivers of population connectivity remains a fundamental question in ecology and evolution. Answering this question can be challenging in aquatic environments where dynamic lake and ocean currents coupled with high levels of dispersal and gene flow can decrease the utility of modern population genetic tools. To address this challenge, we used RAD-Seq to genotype 959 yellow perc
Authors
Claire Schraidt, Amanda Susanne Ackiss, Wesley Alan Larson, Mark D Rowe, Tomas O Höök, Mark R. Christie
Evaluating population trends of juvenile Atlantic Sturgeon at low abundance in a dynamic estuarine environment (Hudson River, New York)
Evaluating population trends in dynamic estuarine environments can be challenging, especially when survey data include a high percentage of zero observations. In fishery-independent surveys, zeros that come from reduced susceptibility to sample gears and reduced availability of the population to the survey impact survey catchability and negatively bias relative abundance indices. A zero-inflated n
Authors
Mark Richard Dufour, Song S. Qian
Using multiscale environmental and spatial analyses to understand natural and anthropogenic influence on fish communities in four Canadian rivers
Science-based conservation of riverine fishes can be best targeted with specific information about spatial-ecological controls on the community, including anthropogenic stressors. Because anthropogenic stressors can originate at multiple spatial scales, we investigated the influence of natural and anthropogenic variables summarized within the reach, valley, and catchment on fish community composit
Authors
Beth L. Sparks-Jackson, Peter C. Esselman, Christopher C. Wilson, Leon M. Carl
Evaluation of threatened, endangered, and rare fish species and communities of the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries in the United States
Biodiversity is responsible for important ecological processes like productivity and ecosystem stability, and rare species are a major component of biodiversity. Rarity increases a species' vulnerability to disturbances and also makes them difficult to study. Globally, species of freshwater systems are some of the most threatened, and evaluation of rare freshwater species and their habitats is nee
Authors
James E. McKenna, Anthony David