Publications

Sand Point is a small cuspate foreland located along the southeastern shore of Lake Superior within Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising, Michigan. Park managers’ concerns for the integrity of historic buildings at the northern periphery of the point during the rising lake levels in the mid-1980s greatly elevated the priority of research into the geomorphic history and age of...

We evaluated the dynamics of walleye Sander vitreus population size structure, as indexed by the proportional size distribution (PSD) of quality-length fish, in Escanaba Lake during 1967–2003 and in 204 other lakes in northern Wisconsin during 1990–2011. We estimated PSD from angler-caught walleyes in Escanaba Lake and from spring electrofishing in 204 other lakes, and then related PSD...

Lampreys typically spawn in riffle habitats during the spring. Spawning activity and diel (i.e., during daylight and at night) behavioral patterns are initiated when spring water temperatures increase to levels that coincide with optimal embryologic development. Nests are constructed in gravel substrate using the oral disc to move stones and the tail to fan sediment out of the nest...

The Gulf of Mexico annual summer hypoxia forecasts are based on average May total nitrogen loads from the Mississippi River basin for that year. The load estimate, recently released by USGS, is 4,761 metric tons per day. Based on that estimate, we predict the area of this summer’s hypoxic zone to be 14,000 square kilometers (95% credible interval, 8,000 to 20,000) – an “average year”...

The 2014 Forecast - Given the average Jan-May 2014 total nitrogen load of 200,165 kg/day, this summer’s hypoxia volume forecast is 8.2 km3, slightly larger than average size for the period of record and the observed size last year.

Biliary atresia is a rare disease of infancy, with an estimated 1 in 15,000 frequency in the southeast United States, but more common in East Asian countries, with a reported frequency of 1 in 5,000 in Taiwan. Although much is known about the management of biliary atresia, its pathogenesis is still elusive. The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) provides a unique opportunity to examine the...

We analyzed angling catch records for 341,959 muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) from North America to test for a cyclic lunar influence on the catch. Using periodic regression, we showed that the number caught was strongly related to the 29-day lunar cycle, and the effect was consistent across most fisheries. More muskellunge were caught around the full and new moon than at other times. At...

Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax are native to northeastern Atlantic and Pacific–Arctic drainages and have been widely introduced throughout North America. In the Great Lakes region, Rainbow Smelt are known predators and competitors of native fish and a primary prey species in pelagic food webs. Despite their widespread distribution, importance as a prey species, and potential to negatively...

Burrowing mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Ephemeridae) are sensitive to pollution and have been used as environmental indicators in the Great Lakes. Hexagenia limbata and Ephemera simulans population abundance and biomass estimates from Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior, were compared between the years 2002 and 2012 as well as inside and outside the Northern States Power Lakefront Superfund site...

We examined diets of 1204 allopatric and sympatric juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in three tributaries of Lake Ontario. The diet composition of both species consisted primarily of ephemeropterans, trichopterans, and chironomids, although juvenile steelhead consumed more terrestrial invertebrates, especially at the sympatric sites. Subyearlings...

Distributional patterns across the United States of five avian community breeding-season characteristics—community biomass, richness, constituent species' vulnerability to extirpation, percentage of constituent species' global abundance present in the community (conservation index, CI), and the community's position along the ecological gradient underlying species composition (principal...

Recent observations of spawning lake trout Salvelinus namaycush near Drummond Island in northern Lake Huron indicate that lake trout use drumlins, landforms created in subglacial environments by the action of ice sheets, as a primary spawning habitat. From these observations, we generated a hypothesis that may in part explain locations chosen by lake trout for spawning. Most salmonines...