Publications

Forage base allocation, which has become an important issue because of major changes in the fish communities and fisheries of the Great Lakes since the 1950s is examined and documented in this chapter. Management initiatives that were used to address the issue, and supporting research and development that provided new or improved methods of field sampling and analysis are also...

Aquatic algal communities are sensitive to environmental stresses and are used as indicators of water quality. Diatoms were collected from three streams that drain the Great Marsh at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Diatom communities, water chemistry, and land use were measured at each site to test the hypothesis that differences in land use indirectly affect diatom communities...

The Calumet Region was shaped by geologic forces, succession, and interacting biomes converging on a unique natural landscape. Over the past 4500 years, a strand plain has formed to the north of a geologic area called Toleston Beach. Sequential and differential primary succession of dune and swale communities in this region allowed species from different biomes to interact freely. In the...

The process of apoptosis, often coined programmed cell death, involves cell injury induced by a variety of stimuli including xenobiotics and is morphologically, biochemically, and physiologically distinct from necrosis. Apoptotic death is characterized by cellular changes such as cytoplasm shrinkage, chromatin condensation, and plasma membrane asymmetry. This form of cell suicide is...

The Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli), a small, cavity-nesting songbird, is one of the most common birds of montane and coniferous forest from southern Arizona and Baja California north to British Columbia and the Yukon territory. This publication describes the life history of the Mountain Chickadee.

Two exotic species of dreissenid mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and D. bugensis) began to colonize bottom substrates in Presque Isle Bay, Lake Erie in 1990. By 1991, all native unionid (Unionidae) shells were infested by dreissenids. In 1990 and 1991, about 500 individual unionids of 15 species were collected: in 1992, 246 individuals of 12 species were collected; in 1993, 64 individuals...

Historically, Lake Ontario may have supported the world's largest freshwater population of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). However, by the late 1800's, salmon were virtually extinct in the lake due to the damming of tributaries, overharvest, deforestation, and pollution. Of these factors, the building of dams on tributaries, which precluded access by the salmon to natal spawning streams...

Lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens declined in abundance in Lake Superior's St. Louis River during the late 1800s and were eliminated from the river during the early 1900s because of the combined effects of exploitation, pollution, and habitat alteration. Since then, exploitation in the river and in Lake Superior has been reduced. Furthermore, water quality in the St. Louis River has...

This paper describes the life history, distribution, and abundance of Hexagenia in Lake Erie, as shown by sediment core samples containing preserved Hexagenia remains dating back to about 1740, periodic sampling of living nymphal populations since about 1930, observations of emergences and mating swarms of adults, and the incidence of Hexagenia in fish stomachs. The roles of...

The bottom fauna of western Lake Erie has changed dramatically over the past 50 years in response to environmental degradation and biological invasions. In 1953, low dissolved oxygen reduced the biodiversity of that fauna, especially burrowing mayflies and freshwater mussels (Unionidae). Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972. By 1982, over 7...

This paper presents brief fragments of the results of joint Russia-US research conducted through the cooperative project entitled, 'Comparative ecology of exotic invaders and ecologically equivalent species of hydrobionths in the Great Lakes of the world: Lake Baikal and the Laurentian Great Lakes.' The project was executed under the Agreement on Scientific Cooperation between the...

A blood chemistry profile for lake trout Salvelinus namaycush was developed by establishing baseline ranges for several clinical chemistry tests (glucose, total protein, amylase, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, creatine kinase, calcium, and magnesium). Measurements were made accurately and rapidly with a Kodak Ektachem DT60 Analyzer and the...