Publications

Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) were first observed nesting in the upper St. Lawrence River at Strachan Island in 1992. Cormorants now nest at a number of islands in the Thousand Islands section of the river. Griswold, McNair, and Strachan islands are among the largest colonies in the upper river. Until 2011, nest counts had remained relatively stable, ranging from 200...

For almost two decades Little Galloo Island (LGI) has supported a large colony of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario. Cormorant nest counts on the island since the early 1990's have averaged 4,297 per year. However, less than 2,000 pairs have nested on the island in three of the past five years. The highest count was reached in 1996...

Sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus) avoid damage-released and predator chemosensory cues at night, but their response to these cues during the day is unknown. Here, we explored (i) whether sea lamprey avoid these cues during the day and (ii) the effect of water temperature on the avoidance of chemosensory alarm cues in two diurnal laboratory experiments. We hypothesized that daytime...

Inputs of terrestrial organic carbon (t-OC) into lakes are often considered a resource subsidy for aquatic consumer production. Although there is evidence that terrestrial carbon can be incorporated into the tissues of aquatic consumers, its ability to enhance consumer production has been debated. Our research aims to evaluate the net effect of t-OC input on zooplankton. We used a survey...

Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is a widely used modeling tool in fishery research and management. Ecopath requires a mass-balanced snapshot of a food web at a particular point in time, which Ecosim then uses to simulate changes in biomass over time. Initial inputs to Ecopath, including estimates for biomasses, production to biomass ratios, consumption to biomass ratios, and diets, rarely...

Silver Chub (Macrhybopsis storeriana) was once a common forage fish in Lake Erie but has declined greatly since the 1950s. Identification of optimal and marginal habitats would help conserve and manage this species. We developed neural networks to use broad-scale habitat variables to predict abundance classes of Silver Chub in western Lake Erie, where its largest remaining population...

Controlling the invasion front of aquatic nuisance species is of high importance to resource managers. We tested the hypothesis that adult sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus), a destructive invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes, would exhibit behavioral avoidance to dual-frequency pulsed direct current generated by vertical electrodes and that the electric field would not injure...

This perspective describes the major natural and anthropogenic forces driving change in the abundance and quality of fish habitats in the Huron-Erie Corridor (HEC), the Great Lakes connecting channel comprised of the St. Clair River, the Lake St. Clair, and the Detroit River. Channels connecting the Laurentian Great Lakes discharge large volumes of water equal to or greater than most...

It has long been hypothesized that flux of fresh meltwater from glacial Lake Minong in North America's Superior Basin to the North Atlantic Ocean triggered rapid climatic shifts during the early Holocene. The spatial context of recent support for this idea demands a reevaluation of the exit point of meltwater from the Superior Basin. We used ground penetrating radar (GPR), foundation...

Diseases of fishes caused by Aeromonas spp. are common, have broad host ranges and may cause high mortality. Treatments of captive-reared populations using antimicrobials are limited with concerns for bacterial resistance development and environmental dissemination. This study was done to determine whether selected plant-derived essential oils were bactericidal to Aeromonas spp...

In jawed (gnathostome) vertebrates, the inner ears have three semicircular canals arranged orthogonally in the three Cartesian planes: one horizontal (lateral) and two vertical canals. They function as detectors for angular acceleration in their respective planes. Living jawless craniates, cyclostomes (hagfish and lamprey) and their fossil records seemingly lack a lateral horizontal...

The predictive power of recruitment models often relies on the identification and quantification of external variables, in addition to stock size. In theory, the identification of climatic, biotic, or demographic influences on reproductive success assists fisheries management by identifying factors that have a direct and reproducible influence on the population dynamics of a target...