Publications
Welcome to the Great Lakes Science Center's Publications page.
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Evaluating the utility of effective breeding size estimates for monitoring sea lamprey spawning abundance
Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is an invasive species that is a significant source of mortality for populations of valued fish species across the North American Great Lakes. Large annual control programs are needed to reduce the species' impacts; however, the number of successfully spawning adults cannot currently be accurately assessed. In this study, effective breeding size (Nb) and the minimu
Authors
Ellen M. Weise, Kim T Scribner, Olivia Boeberitz, Gale Bravener, Nicholas S. Johnson, John D Robinson
Morphological differences between wild and hatchery-reared Bloater (Coregonus hoyi) from Lake Michigan, USA
Coregonines (ciscoes and whitefishes) are economically, ecologically, and culturally important fishes that are distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In the Laurentian Great Lakes, coregonines declined throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and managers have prioritized their restoration. A key restoration tool is reintroduction via stocking. However, hatchery-reared coregonines can disp
Authors
Andrew Edgar Honsey, Yu-Chun Kao, Christopher Olds, David Bunnell
Large-scale variation in lakebed properties interpreted from single-beam sonar in two Laurentian Great Lakes
Acoustic seabed classification (ASC) is an important method for understanding landscape-level physical and biological patterns in the aquatic environment. Bottom habitats in the Laurentian Great Lakes are poorly mapped to date, and will require a variety of contributors and data sources to complete. We repurposed a long-term split-beam echosounder dataset gathered for purposes of fisheries assessm
Authors
Samuel Pecoraro, Peter C. Esselman, Timothy P. O'Brien, Steve A. Farha, David Warner
Phragmites management in high water: Cutting plants under water limits biomass production, carbohydrate storage, and rhizome viability
Invasion of Phragmites australis (common reed) in wetlands throughout North America, and particularly the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin, poses significant ecological problems. The extended period of low Great Lakes water levels from 2000 to 2013 created conditions for large expansions of Phragmites in the Great Lakes coastal zone. The following extended period of high water in the Great Lakes durin
Authors
Spenser L. Widin, Wesley A. Bickford, Kurt P. Kowalski
Positioning aquatic animals with acoustic transmitters
Geolocating aquatic animals with acoustic tags has been ongoing for decades, relying on the detection of acoustic signals at multiple receivers with known positions to calculate a 2D or 3D position, and ultimately recreate the path of an aquatic animal from detections at fixed stations.This method of underwater geolocation is evolving with new software and hardware options available to help invest
Authors
Robert J. Lennox, Kim Aarestrup, Josep Alós, Robert Arlinghaus, Eneko Aspillaga, Michael G. Bertram, Kim Birnie-Gauvin, Tomas Brodin, Steven J. Cooke, Lotte S. Dahlmo, Félicie Dhellemmes, Karl Ø. Gjelland, Gustav Hellström, Henry Hershey, Christopher Holbrook, Thomas Klefoth, Susan K. Lowerre-Barbieri, Christopher T. Monk, Cecilie Iden Nilsen, Ina Pauwels, Renanel Pickholtz, Marie Prchalová, Jan Reubens, Milan Říha, David Villegas-Ríos, Knut Wiik Vollset, Samuel Westrelin, Henrik Baktoft
Food web changes reflected in age-0 piscivore diets and growth
Lake Erie walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) recruitment fluctuates annually and depends partially on their diet and growth during their first year of life. In recent decades, age-0 walleye diet and growth may be responding to food web changes in western Lake Erie. To determine how age-0 walleye have responded to changes in prey species and abundance, we compared diet between 2019, 2014 and 1994–1999.
Authors
T. Yang, Christine M Mayer, Robin L. DeBruyne, Edward F. Roseman, Mark Richard Dufour, Eric J. Weimer
Genetic structure of the Silver Chub indicates distinctiveness of Lake Erie population
ObjectiveSilver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana is a small riverine minnow endemic to North American fresh waters. Its range extends from the southern USA to southcentral Canada; the latter includes a rare lacustrine population in Lake Erie. Anthropogenic activities pose an immediate threat to several Silver Chub populations, currently categorized from special concern to threatened at the state level
Authors
Ahmed Elbassiouny, Joao Pedro Fontenelle, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Nicholas E. Mandrak, Nathan R Lovejoy
Conservation decision support for Silver Chub habitat in Lake Erie
ObjectiveConservation and restoration of aquatic species is difficult, especially for rare species, because their habitats are typically disturbed, obscuring the natural ability of the habitat to support each species. The Lake Erie population of Silver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana struggles to sustain itself in a habitat disturbed by a wide spectrum of anthropogenic factors. Application of multipl
Authors
James E. McKenna
Why are larger fish farther upstream? Testing multiple hypotheses using Silver Chub in two Midwestern United States riverscapes
ObjectiveThree competing hypotheses might explain the widely documented intrapopulation larger-fish-upstream phenomenon. The age-phased recruitment hypothesis posits that fish spawn downstream and move upstream as they age and grow, the static population with growth and mortality gradients hypothesis posits that fish spawn throughout a riverscape and growth is greater upstream while recruitment is
Authors
Joshuah S. Perkin, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Zachary D Steffensmeier, Keith B. Gido
Lake sturgeon population trends in the St. Clair–Detroit River System, 2001–2019
Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens are listed as threatened or endangered in 15 states or provinces within their native range. Accordingly, investments in habitat and population restoration for this species have increased throughout the Great Lakes. To aide evaluation of restoration efficacy, robust population parameters are needed to inform management decisions. The St. Clair – Detroit River Syst
Authors
Justin A. Chiotti, James C. Boase, Andrew S Briggs, Chris Davis, Richard Drouin, Darryl W. Hondorp, Lloyd Mohr, Edward F. Roseman, Michael V. Thomas, Todd C. Wills
Seasonal habitat utilization provides evidence for site fidelity during both spawn and non-spawning seasons in Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi
The Lake Ontario cisco Coregonus artedi population declined in the 20th century, and restoration of this species is a management objective. Management tools to restore cisco are limited because little is known about cisco spawning behavior and habitat use. We tagged 76 cisco from a remnant population in Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario with acoustic transmitters and characterized seasonal habitat use fr
Authors
Alexander J. Gatch, Dimitry Gorsky, Brian C. Weidel, Zy F. Biesinger, Michael J. Connerton, Cameron Davis, Hannah Lachance, Brian O'Malley