Publications
Welcome to the Great Lakes Science Center's Publications page.
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Freshwater wrack along Great Lakes coasts harbors Escherichia coli: Potential for bacterial transfer between watershed environments
We investigated the occurrence, persistence, and growth potential of Escherichia coli associated with freshwater organic debris (i.e., wrack) frequently deposited along shorelines (shoreline wrack), inputs from rivers (river CPOM), and parking lot runoffs (urban litter). Samples were collected from 9 Great Lakes beaches, 3 creeks, and 4 beach parking lots. Shoreline wrack samples were mainly compo
Authors
Meredith Nevers, Kasia Przybyla-Kelly, Ashley Spoljaric, Dawn A. Shively, Richard L. Whitman, Muruleedhara Byappanahalli
Announcement—guidance document for acquiring reliable data in ecological restoration projects
The Laurentian Great Lakes are undergoing intensive ecological restoration in Canada and the United States. In the United States, an interagency committee was formed to facilitate implementation of quality practices for federally funded restoration projects in the Great Lakes basin. The Committee's responsibilities include developing a guidance document that will provide a common approach to the a
Authors
Martin A. Stapanian, Karen Rodriguez, Timothy E. Lewis, Louis Blume, Craig J. Palmer, Lynn Walters, Judith Schofield, Molly M. Amos, Adam Bucher
Reply to comments by Riley and Dunlop on He et al. (2015)
He et al. (2015) described piscivory patterns in the main basin of Lake Huron 1984-2010, during which there was also a pattern of stepwise declines in the abundance of dominant prey fish species. The approach of He et al. (2015) was to couple age-structured stock assessment and fish bioenergetics models to estimate prey fish consumption, and to compare these patterns with prey fish biomass from a
Authors
James R. Bence, Charles P. Madenjian, Ji X. He, David G. Fielder, Steven A. Pothoven, Norine E. Dobiesz, James E. Johnson, Mark P. Ebener, R. Adam Cottrill, Lloyd C. Mohr, Scott R. Koproski
Recruitment synchrony of yellow perch (Perca flavescens, Percidae) in the Great Lakes region, 1966–2008
Population-level reproductive success (recruitment) of many fish populations is characterized by high inter-annual variation and related to annual variation in key environmental factors (e.g., climate). When such environmental factors are annually correlated across broad spatial scales, spatially separated populations may display recruitment synchrony (i.e., the Moran effect). We investigated inte
Authors
Andrew E. Honsey, David B. Bunnell, Cary D. Troy, David G. Fielder, Michael V. Thomas, Carey T. Knight, Stephen Chong, Tomas O. Hook
Molecular evidence of undescribed Ceratonova sp. (Cnidaria: Myxosporea) in the freshwater polychaete, Manayunkia speciosa, from western Lake Erie
We used PCR to screen pooled individuals of Manayunkia speciosa from western Lake Erie, Michigan, USA for myxosporean parasites. Amplicons from positive PCRs were sequenced and showed a Ceratonova species in an estimated 1.1% (95% CI = 0.46%, 1.8%) of M. speciosa individuals. We sequenced 18S, ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2 and most of the 28S rDNA regions of this Ceratonova sp., and part of the protein-coding
Authors
David M. Malakauskas, Robert Benjamin Snipes, Ann M. Thompson, Donald W. Schloesser
Developing fish trophic interaction indicators of climate change for the Great Lakes
This project addressed regional climate change effects on aquatic food webs in the Great Lakes. We sought insights by examining Lake Erie as a representative system with a high level of anthropogenic impacts, strong nutrient gradients, seasonal hypoxia, and spatial overlap of cold- and cool-water fish guilds. In Lake Erie and in large embayments throughout the Great Lakes basin, this situation is
Authors
Richard T. Kraus, Carey T. Knight, Ann Marie Gorman, Patrick M. KoÄŤovskĂ˝, Brian C. Weidel, Mark W. Rogers
Estimates of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) diet in Lake Ontario using two and three isotope mixing models
Recent development of multi-dimensional stable isotope models for estimating both foraging patterns and niches have presented the analytical tools to further assess the food webs of freshwater populations. One approach to refine predictions from these analyses is to include a third isotope to the more common two-isotope carbon and nitrogen mixing models to increase the power to resolve different p
Authors
Scott F. Colborne, Scott A. Rush, Gordon Paterson, Timothy B. Johnson, Brian F. Lantry, Aaron T. Fisk
Estimating evapotranspiration and groundwater flow from water-table fluctuations for a general wetland scenario
The use of diurnal water-table fluctuation methods to calculate evapotranspiration (ET) and groundwater flow is of increasing interest in ecohydrological studies. Most studies of this type, however, have been located in riparian wetlands of semi-arid regions where groundwater levels are consistently below topographic surface elevations and precipitation events are infrequent. Current methodologies
Authors
Lisa C. Weber, Michael J. Wiley, Douglas Wilcox
Research needs to better understand Lake Ontario ecosystem function: A workshop summary
Lake Ontario investigators discussed and interpreted published and unpublished information during two workshops to assess our current understanding of Lake Ontario ecosystem function and to identify research needs to guide future research and monitoring activities. The purpose of this commentary is to summarize key investigative themes and hypotheses that emerged from the workshops. The outcomes o
Authors
Thomas J. Stewart, Lars G. Rudstam, James M. Watkins, Timothy B. Johnson, Brian C. Weidel, Marten A. Koops
Developing recreational harvest regulations for an unexploited lake trout population
Developing fishing regulations for previously unexploited populations presents numerous challenges, many of which stem from a scarcity of baseline information about abundance, population productivity, and expected angling pressure. We used simulation models to test the effect of six management strategies (catch and release; trophy, minimum, and maximum length limits; and protected and exploited sl
Authors
Melissa A Lenker, Brian C. Weidel, Olaf P. Jensen, Christopher T. Solomon
Evaluating potential artefacts of photo-reversal on behavioral studies with nocturnal invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus L., 1758) are nocturnal, so experiments evaluating their behaviour to chemosensory cues have typically been conducted at night. However, given the brief timeframe each year that adult P. marinus are available for experimentation, we investigated whether P. marinus exposed to a 12 h shifted diurnal cycle (reversed photoperiod) could be tested in a darkened arena dur
Authors
Matthew Barnett, Istvan Imre, C. Michael Wagner, Richard T. Di Rocco, Nicholas S. Johnson, Grant E. Brown
Seasonal habitat use of brook trout and juvenile steelhead in a Lake Ontario tributary
Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) are generally restricted to headwaters in New York tributaries of Lake Ontario. In only a few streams are brook trout abundant in lower stream reaches that are accessible to adult Pacific salmonids migrating from the lake. Consequently, because of the rarity of native brook trout populations in these lower stream reaches it is important to understand how they us
Authors
James H. Johnson, Ross Abbett, Marc A. Chalupnicki, Francis Verdoliva