Publications

Aquatic habitat has been extensively altered throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes to increase navigation connectivity. In particular, the St. Marys River, a Great Lakes connecting channel, lost >50% of its historic rapids habitat over the past century. In 2016, the natural flow was restored to the Little Rapids area of the St. Marys River. The goal of our study was to evaluate physical...

Excessive nutrient inputs from tributary streams and rivers contribute to harmful algal blooms and coastal ecosystem degradation worldwide. However, the role that small tributaries play in coastal nutrient dynamics remains unknown because most monitoring and regulatory efforts focus only on the largest tributaries. We combined a 6-d sampling effort with discharge modeling to characterize...

The Cheboygan River, Michigan, is the only tributary to the upper Great Lakes where sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are known to complete their entire life cycle. The Upper and Lower reaches are separated by the Cheboygan Lock and Dam located about 2 km from Lake Huron. In the Upper River, the Pigeon, Sturgeon, and Maple Rivers provide nursery habitat for larval sea lamprey. Burt and...

Background Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and animal telemetry have become important tools for understanding the relationships between aquatic organisms and their environment, but more information is needed to guide the development and use of AUVs as effective animal tracking platforms. A forward-facing acoustic telemetry receiver (VR2Tx 69 kHz; VEMCO, Bedford, Nova Scotia)...

Invasive species negatively affect enterprises such as fisheries, agriculture, and international trade. In the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin, threats include invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) and the four major Chinese carps. Barriers have proven to be an effective mechanism for managing invasive species but are detrimental in that they also limit the migration of desirable...

Animals living in the Anthropocene search for mates facing a barrage of pollutants. Few studies consider pheromones from invasive species as pollution, but their central role in the lives of many animals indicates cross-reaction among historically allopatric relatives has potentially damaging impacts. We hypothesized the sex pheromone of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), an invasive fish...

Tributaries provide spawning habitat for three of four major sub-stocks of Lake Erie walleye (Sander vitreus). Despite anthropogenic degradation and the extirpation of other potamodromous species, the Maumee River, Ohio, USA continues to support one of the largest fish migrations in the Laurentian Great Lakes. To determine if spawning habitat availability and quality could limit...

The endangered Silver Chub (Macrhybopsis storeriana, Kirtland 1844) is native to North America and primarily riverine, with the only known large‐lake population in Lake Erie. Once a major component of the Lake Erie fish community, it declined and became nearly extirpated in the mid‐1900s. Recent collections in western Lake Erie suggest that Silver Chub may be able to recover, but their...

A successful management plan requires clear goals and a process for evaluation. Without them, managers risk operational shifts in which continuous changes disguised as improvements may have little beneficial effect. The conception, design, and operation of an electric barrier and fishway on the Pere Marquette River of Lake Michigan serve as an illustration. The Great Lakes Fishery...

Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are invasive in the Laurentian Great Lakes and parasitically feed on valued fishes. Migration barriers and selective pesticides are used to control sea lamprey, but there is a desire to develop additional control tools such as traps with nonphysical deterrents. Sound has been used as a deterrent for other invasive species, but its potential for...

Microorganisms surrounding plant roots may benefit invasive species through enhanced mutualism or decreased antagonism, when compared to surrounding native species. We surveyed the rhizosphere soil microbiome of a prominent invasive plant, Phragmites australis, and its co‐occurring native subspecies for evidence of microbial drivers of invasiveness. If the rhizosphere microbial community...

The adverse impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing worldwide. Lake Erie is a North American Great Lake highly affected by cultural eutrophication and summer cyanobacterial HABs. While phosphorus loading is a known driver of bloom size, more nuanced yet crucial questions remain. For example, it is unclear what mechanisms are primarily responsible for initiating...