Projects

We will develop highly sensitive, species-specific quantitative PCR-based assays to identify and discriminate different lamprey genera from water or other environmental samples (e.g., sediment) within the Great Lakes watershed. Environmental DNA (eDNA) h ...

RATIONALE: Diporeia declines in Lakes Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario have been linked to dreissenid invasions. However, despite considerable research effort, we still do not know the causal mechanism. Continued co-existence of healthy population of ...

Fishes are probably the most important biological indicators of ecosystem health in the Great Lakes. Understanding changes in fish distributions over time and the processes responsible for these changes is essential to understanding and successfully manag ...

The Great Lakes once contained a diverse assemblage of ciscoes. Currently, the development of conservation and re-establishment plans is hampered by taxonomic uncertainty. Difficulties arise due a complex evolutionary history that likely included postglac ...

Lake trout were the predominant fish predator in Lake Superior before stocks collapsed from fishery exploitation and sea lamprey predation. Stocks were restored through stocking, control of sea lampreys, and regulation of fisheries. In western Lake Supe ...

INTRODUCTION:
Lake trout recovery plans call for the evaluation of deepwater strains of lake trout as candidates for reintroduction in Lakes Huron and Michigan. Siscowet lake trout are a deepwater lake trout form that is extant and abundant in Lake Supe ...

RATIONALE:
Yellow perch (Perca flavescens; YP) is an economically and ecologically important species across the Great Lakes, which demonstrates variable recruitment to the fishery that we hypothesize is regulated by physical processes operating during e ...

RATIONALE: Lake Trout is one of only two native salmonines in Lake Ontario and has historically played a pivotal role in energy cycling in the offshore and exerting a stabilizing influence on the fish community. Overfishing and sea lamprey predation extir ...