Fish Ecology

A new study aims to collect information on sturgeon temporal and spatial distribution to inform offshore wind energy and sand leasing operations.

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) is experiencing effects of climate (warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns) and land-use/land-cover (LULC; transition from forest or agriculture to developed lands) change, and these trends are likely to continue under future scenarios of warming and population growth. Stream biodiversity may be vulnerable to ongoing and future climate...

There is a growing and urgent need to develop and implement innovative strategies to research, monitor, and manage freshwater resources as societal demands escalate simultaneously with climate-driven changes in water availability.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing ecology and conservation by enabling species recognition from photos and videos. Our project evaluates the capacity to expand AI for individual fish recognition for population assessment. The success of this effort would facilitate fisheries analysis at an unprecedented scale by engaging anglers and citizen scientists in imagery collection. This...

Collaboration between the world-class expertise of USGS scientists, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Science Program, and state and federal fishery agencies demonstrates the power of partnerships to solve seemingly-insurmountable problems in sustainable and cooperative management of Atlantic coastal fisheries.

Native species conservation is a fundamental purpose of National Parks. Catoctin Mountain Park (CATO) in Maryland supports a prized trout fishery and a healthy community of native fishes, with one exception: native Blue Ridge Sculpin ( Cottus caeruleomentum ) appear to have been extirpated from Big Hunting Creek above Cunningham Falls. Infection by a fungal-like protist Dermocystidium is...

Stream flow is a fundamental driver of ecological structure and function, but its influence on bioassessment measures is poorly understood. Although extreme flow conditions (e.g., floods and droughts) have long been known to play a central role in structuring stream communities, a mechanistic understanding of the linkages between flow variables, landscape and local physical characteristics, and...

Small streams in forests are likely to see dramatic shifts as global climate change influences air temperature and rain patterns. We have already seen warmer stream temperatures as air temperatures increase in summer in the Northeastern US. The intensity and duration of floods and droughts are also expected to magnify as future rain patterns shift. This project will evaluate how stream temperature...

The USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center scientists are collaborating with the PADEP (SMB) to develop and evaluate a genetic assay for fish diets that will allow us to develop a cost-effective monitoring program for determining the diet of wild fish.

The Round Goby, Neogobius melanostomus , is a small benthic fish native to the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

Our goal is to identify the factors that govern population dynamics.