Publications

Systematic underestimation of fish age can impede understanding of recruitment variability and adaptive strategies (like longevity) and can bias estimates of survivorship. We suspected that previous estimates of annual survival (S; range = 0.20-0.44) for Lake Superior ciscoes Coregonus artedi developed from scale ages were biased low. To test this hypothesis, we estimated the total...

Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) are native within the Lake Ontario drainage basin and listed as threatened by New York State. In 1995 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) initiated restoration management of lake sturgeon. This management included both protection of extant populations and stocking of uninhabited historic waters with juvenile sturgeon...

This paper describes the environmental populations of faecal indicator bacteria, and the processes by which these populations become nonpoint sources and influence nearshore water quality. The different possible sources of these indicator bacteria are presented. These include groundwater, springs and seeps, aquatic sediments, beach sand, birds, Cladophora and plant wrack. Also discussed...

We examined the effect of season of burn on flowering phenology of groundlayer species, in the year following burns, in a mesic-sand Midwestern oak savanna. Burn treatments were fall, early-season, growing-season, late-season, and 1 or 5 years after a prior early-season wildfire. For these treatments, we compared the number of flowering stems and of flowers for species overall, for the...

In this report we describe how we adapted two techniques for sampling lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) and other fish early life history stages to meet our research needs in the Detroit River, a deep, flowing Great Lakes connecting channel. First, we developed a buoy‐less method for sampling fish eggs and spawning activity using egg mats deployed on the river bottom. The buoy‐less...

Thiamine deficiency is responsible for reproductive impairment in several species of salmonines in the Great lakes, and is thought to be caused by the consumption of prey containing thiaminase, a thiamine-degrading enzyme. Because thiaminase levels are extremely high in dreissenid mussels, fish that prey on them may be susceptible to thiamine deficiency. We determined thiamine...

We developed an assay for measuring 7α,12α,24-trihydroxy-5a-cholan-3-one-24-sulfate (3kPZS), a mating pheromone released by male sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus), at low picomolar concentrations in natural waters to assess the presence of invasive populations. 3kPZS was extracted from streamwater at a rate of recovery up to 90% using a single cation-exchange and reversed-phase mixed...

Concern over the status of bees has increased the need to inventory bee communities and, consequently, has increased the need to understand effectiveness of different bee sampling methods. We sampled bees using bowl traps and netting at 25 northwest Indiana sites ranging from open grasslands to forests. Assemblages of bees captured in bowl traps and by netting were very similar, but this

Diel vertical migrations are common among many aquatic species and are often associated with changing light levels. The underlying mechanisms are generally attributed to optimizing foraging efficiency or growth rates and avoiding predation risk (μ). The objectives of this study were to (1) assess seasonal and interannual changes in vertical migration patterns of three trophic levels in...

Although considerable information exists on habitat use by stream salmonids, only a small portion has quantitatively examined diurnal and nocturnal habitat variation. We examined diel variation in habitat use by age-0 and age-1+ brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) during summer and autumn in a headwater stream in northern Pennsylvania. Habitat variables measured included cover, depth...

Hatchery supplementation of steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss raises concerns about the impacts on natural populations, including reduced growth and survival, displacement, and increased predation. The potential risks may be density dependent.We examined how hatchery stocking density and the opportunity to emigrate affect the responses of natural steelhead parr in an experimental stream...

A summary of the focus and the recurring theme of the book is presented in this chapter. It includes the use of faecal bacteria as an indicator of faecal pollution and water quality, ubiquity of faecal bacteria, and sources and movement of faecal bacteria in the environment.