Steve Chipps, PhD

Steve joined the South Dakota Unit in 1999, where he currently serves as Unit Leader and Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Management at South Dakota State University. Steve’s research interests include feeding ecology and bioenergetics of fishes, endangered species biology & management, and food web interactions in freshwater ecosystems. Much of his work incorporates quantitative tools that include development and application of energy budgets, the use of individual-based modeling approaches, and application of coupled foraging-bioenergetics models to help address fisheries management questions.  Steve’s current research projects are focused on salmonid management in the Black Hills, predator-prey interactions in glacial lakes, ecology of larval pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River, and spawning ecology of invasive carps in South Dakota. Steve teaches graduate-level courses in Aquatic Trophic Ecology, Fish Bioenergetics, and Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology at South Dakota State University.