Publications

Black Carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) was imported to the USA to control aquaculture pond snails. This species has escaped captivity and occurs in parts of the Mississippi River, several tributaries, and floodplain lakes, which is concerning due to potential competition with native fishes and predation on native mussels, many of which are imperiled. However, Black Carp captures have primarily been i

Double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) have been implicated as causes of fish population declines in many locations across their breeding range. Two challenges facing managers are identifying fisheries population metrics indicative of cormorant impacts and determining when this evidence becomes actionable. Building upon existing studies, we conducted a meta-analysis of eight data-rich sys

Spatial data about the bathymetry, habitat characteristics, underlying geology, and other features of the ocean and inland seas are essential for decision-making. Marine research and management organizations use these data to help ensure safe navigation, promote sustainable fisheries, extract energy, and protect marine habitats in the coastal and ocean waters of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (E

Modern ecological and environmental sciences are dominated by observational data. As a result, traditional statistical training often leaves scientists ill-prepared for the data analysis tasks they encounter in their work. Bayesian methods provide a more robust and flexible tool for data analysis, as they enable information from different sources to be brought into the modelling process. Bayesian

The Great Lakes basin was historically populated by multiple, coevolved coregonine species, but much of that diversity has been lost. In Lakes Erie and Ontario, both lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and cisco (Coregonus artedi) occurred in high numbers before habitat degradation, overfishing, invasive species, and other factors caused significant declines. There is growing interest in resto

No abstract available.

Every three years the Great Lakes Executive Committee reports on the status of the Great Lakes' ecosystem based on 9 indicators and several sub-indicators. This sub-indicator technical report supports assessment of the Nutrients and Algae Indicator by evaluating the status of Cladophora and other benthic algae that can grow to nuisance levels. Based on established criteria, the overall status fo

Freshwater whitefishes, Salmonidae Coregoninae, are cold stenothermic fishes of ecological and socio-economic importance in northern hemisphere lakes that are warming in response to climate change. To address the effect of warming waters on coregonine reproduction we experimentally evaluated different embryo incubation temperatures on post-hatching survival, growth, and critical thermal maximum of

Barriers are an effective mechanism for managing invasive species like sea lamprey in the Lau-rentian Great Lakes, but are detrimental because they limit the migration of desirable, native species. Fish passage technologies that selectively pass desirable species while blocking unde-sirable species are needed. Optical sorting tools combined with newly developed computer learning algorithms could b

Several species of fish in large lakes and marine environments have a pelagic larval stage, and are subject to variable transport that can ultimately regulate survival and recruitment success. Alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, are subject to transport by complex coastal currents during their pelagic larval stage (~ 30 d). We assessed backward-trajectory simulations, consisting of a Lagrangian particl

Groups of sympatric taxa with low interspecific genetic differentiation, but considerable ecological differences, offer great opportunities to study the dynamics of divergence and speciation. This is the case of ciscoes (Coregonus spp.) in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which are characterized by a complex evolutionary history and are commonly described as having undergone an adaptive radiation. In t

In Lake Erie, lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis supported lucrative fisheries before populations were decimated by overfishing and water quality degradation. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in lake whitefish and management of the fishery they support. Lake whitefish spawn on several reefs throughout Lake Erie, but the relative recruitment dynamics and contributions of spawni