Brian S Ickes
Brian S. Ickes is a research ecologist, statistician, and the principal investigator for the Fisheries Component of the Long Term Resources Monitoring element (LTRM) on the Upper Mississippi River System, the nation’s largest river monitoring program.
Brian oversees the collection, quality assurance, serving, and synthesis of fisheries data on the UMRS in cooperation with 4 federal agencies and 5 Midwestern state natural resource agencies. In addition, Brian conducts research in many areas including community, population, life history, and invasive species ecology; effects of impoundment upon migratory aquatic fauna; effects of flood control measures on ecosystem patterns and processes; and changes in flood risks associated with two centuries of river engineering.
Research Interests:
- Freshwater community ecology
- Flood risks associated with cumulative engineering practices
- Survey/monitoring designs
- Lateral connectivity
- Adaptive management
- Systems modeling
- Data visualization
Active Projects:
- LTRM fisheries monitoring
- Multivariate geospatial analysis of engineering and flood response, Mississippi River System, USA
- Procurement of a computational and data visualization laboratory
- Testing the fundamental assumption underlying the use of LTRM fish data: Does variation in LTRM CPUE data reflect variation in the abundance of fishes
- Association between fish assemblage and off-channel area type in the impounded reach of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers: implications for habitat restoration at management-relevant scales
- Development of a virtual hydrologic and geospatial data repository for the Mississippi River System
Education and Certifications
2001 M.S., Fisheries Ecology, University of Minnesota
1991 B.S., Environmental Science, Bowling Green State University
Science and Products
Sampling site, water quality, and fish community data from multi-agency monitoring of the Illinois Waterway response to lock and dam closures, 2019-2021
Lock and dam closures along the Illinois Waterway occurred in summer of 2020, resulting in a prolonged reduction in traffic of large vessels along the Waterway. To study the response of Illinois Waterway water quality and fish community, ongoing water quality and fish Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRMP) elements of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program were expanded from the La Grange
Filter Total Items: 13
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus Rafinesque) population trends and demographics in the Upper Mississippi River System
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus Rafinesque) are a large-bodied fish highly valued and commercially exploited across most of their range. Despite this, relatively little is known of their population demographics compared to other exploited species. To fill these knowledge gaps, we analyzed two independent long-term datasets (30 and 57 years, respectively) and population demographic data (age s
Authors
Kristopher A. Maxson, Levi E. Solomon, Taylor A. Bookout, Steven A. DeLain, Andrew Bartels, Melvin C. Bowler, Eric J. Gittinger, Eric N. Ratcliff, John L. West, Seth A. Love, Jason A. DeBoer, Andrya L. Whitten-Harris, Michael J. Spear, Brian Ickes, Andrew F. Casper, James T. Lamer
Reduction of large vessel traffic improves water quality and alters fish habitat-use throughout a large river
Rivers are increasingly used as superhighways for the continental-scale transportation of freight goods, but the ecological impact of large vessel traffic on river ecosystems is difficult to study. Recently, the temporary maintenance closure of lock and dam systems on the Illinois Waterway (USA) brought commercial vessel traffic to a halt along the river's length, offering a rare opportunity to st
Authors
Michael J. Spear, Brandon S. Harris, Taylor A. Bookout, Brian Ickes, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Levi E. Solomon, Kristopher A. Maxson, Andrya L. Whitten Harris, Andrew T. Mathis, Sam J. Schaick, Jesse A. Williams, Jason A. DeBoer, Allison W. Lenaerts, Eric C. Hine, John H. Chick, James T. Lamer
Evidence of alternative trophic pathways for fish consumers in a large river system in the face of invasion
Large rivers are susceptible to anthropogenic alteration, which can result in drastic changes to their functional ecology. We evaluated spatial–temporal changes in the functional fish communities of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) using data from six study reaches. Species were classified into one of 14 feeding guilds and mass per unit effort (MPUE) was then calculated for each feeding g
Authors
John V. Gatto, Brian Ickes, John H. Chick
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) growth across a 1200km human use and ecological disturbance gradient in the Upper Mississippi River System
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) is a common and widely distributed large-bodied species of the family Catostomidae. It inhabits large rivers and reservoirs of the eastern continental United States (east of the continental Divide) and is most abundant and common in the large rivers of the Midwest and Central Plains, though it does occur as far north and east as the Hudson Bay drainage and as
Authors
Brian Ickes
Assessing the impacts of dams and levees on the hydrologic record of the Middle and Lower Mississippi River, USA
The impacts of dams and levees on the long-term (>130 years) discharge record was assessed along a ~1200 km segment of the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. To aid in our evaluation of dam impacts, we used data from the U.S. National Inventory of Dams to calculate the rate of reservoir expansion at five long-term hydrologic monitoring stations along the stu
Authors
Jonathan W.F. Remo, Brian Ickes, Julia K. Ryherd, Ross J. Guida, Matthew D. Therrell
Can data from disparate long-term fish monitoring programs be used to increase our understanding of regional and continental trends in large river assemblages?
Understanding trends in the diverse resources provided by large rivers will help balance tradeoffs among stakeholders and inform strategies to mitigate the effects of landscape scale stressors such as climate change and invasive species. Absent a cohesive coordinated effort to assess trends in important large river resources, a logical starting point is to assess our ability to draw inferences fro
Authors
Timothy D. Counihan, Ian R. Waite, Andrew F. Casper, David L. Ward, Jennifer S. Sauer, Elise R. Irwin, Colin G. Chapman, Brian Ickes, Craig P. Paukert, John J. Kosovich, Jennifer M. Bayer
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Cooperative Research Units, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Species Management Research Program, Oregon Water Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)
Long-term fish monitoring in large rivers: Utility of “benchmarking” across basins
In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or segments of large rivers, missing opportunities to
Authors
David L. Ward, Andrew F. Casper, Timothy D. Counihan, Jennifer M. Bayer, Ian R. Waite, John J. Kosovich, Colin Chapman, Elise R. Irwin, Jennifer S. Sauer, Brian Ickes, Alexa McKerrow
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Ecosystems Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Gap Analysis Project, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Species Management Research Program, Southwest Biological Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)
Development and assessment of a new method for combining catch per unit effort data from different fish sampling gears: Multigear mean standardization (MGMS)
Fish community assessments are often based on sampling with multiple gear types. However, multivariate methods used to assess fish community structure and composition are sensitive to differences in the relative scale of indices or measures of abundance produced by different sampling methods. This makes combining data from different sampling gears and methods a serious challenge. We developed a me
Authors
D.K. Gibson-Reinemer, Brian Ickes, John H. Chick
The Mississippi River: A place for fish
The Mississippi River flows 3,734 km from its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota to its outlet at the Gulf of Mexico. Along its course, it collects water from portions of two Canadian provinces and 41 % of the conterminous United States. Although greatly altered for navigation and flood control throughout much of its length, the Mississippi River remains an important fishery resource that provides h
Authors
Harold Schramm, Brian Ickes
Particle size distribution of main-channel-bed sediments along the upper Mississippi River, USA
In this study, we compared pre-lock-and-dam (ca. 1925) with a modern longitudinal survey of main-channel-bed sediments along a 740-km segment of the upper Mississippi River (UMR) between Davenport, IA, and Cairo, IL. This comparison was undertaken to gain a better understanding of how bed sediments are distributed longitudinally and to assess change since the completion of the UMR lock and dam nav
Authors
Jonathan Remo, Ruben A. Heine, Brian Ickes
Are two systemic fish assemblage sampling programmes on the upper Mississippi River telling us the same thing?
We applied an Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) used on Wisconsin/Minnesota waters of the upper Mississippi River (UMR) to compare data from two systemic sampling programmes. Ability to use data from multiple sampling programmes could extend spatial and temporal coverage of river assessment and monitoring efforts. We normalized for effort and tested fish community data collected by the Environmental
Authors
J.T. Dukerschein, A.D. Bartels, B.S. Ickes, M.S. Pearson
Flood trends and river engineering on the Mississippi River system
Along >4000 km of the Mississippi River system, we document that climate, land-use change, and river engineering have contributed to statistically significant increases in flooding over the past 100-150 years. Trends were tested using a database of >8 million hydrological measurements. A geospatial database of historical engineering construction was used to quantify the response of flood levels to
Authors
N. Pinter, A.A. Jemberie, J.W.F. Remo, R.A. Heine, B.S. Ickes
Science and Products
Sampling site, water quality, and fish community data from multi-agency monitoring of the Illinois Waterway response to lock and dam closures, 2019-2021
Lock and dam closures along the Illinois Waterway occurred in summer of 2020, resulting in a prolonged reduction in traffic of large vessels along the Waterway. To study the response of Illinois Waterway water quality and fish community, ongoing water quality and fish Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRMP) elements of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program were expanded from the La Grange
Filter Total Items: 13
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus Rafinesque) population trends and demographics in the Upper Mississippi River System
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus Rafinesque) are a large-bodied fish highly valued and commercially exploited across most of their range. Despite this, relatively little is known of their population demographics compared to other exploited species. To fill these knowledge gaps, we analyzed two independent long-term datasets (30 and 57 years, respectively) and population demographic data (age s
Authors
Kristopher A. Maxson, Levi E. Solomon, Taylor A. Bookout, Steven A. DeLain, Andrew Bartels, Melvin C. Bowler, Eric J. Gittinger, Eric N. Ratcliff, John L. West, Seth A. Love, Jason A. DeBoer, Andrya L. Whitten-Harris, Michael J. Spear, Brian Ickes, Andrew F. Casper, James T. Lamer
Reduction of large vessel traffic improves water quality and alters fish habitat-use throughout a large river
Rivers are increasingly used as superhighways for the continental-scale transportation of freight goods, but the ecological impact of large vessel traffic on river ecosystems is difficult to study. Recently, the temporary maintenance closure of lock and dam systems on the Illinois Waterway (USA) brought commercial vessel traffic to a halt along the river's length, offering a rare opportunity to st
Authors
Michael J. Spear, Brandon S. Harris, Taylor A. Bookout, Brian Ickes, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Levi E. Solomon, Kristopher A. Maxson, Andrya L. Whitten Harris, Andrew T. Mathis, Sam J. Schaick, Jesse A. Williams, Jason A. DeBoer, Allison W. Lenaerts, Eric C. Hine, John H. Chick, James T. Lamer
Evidence of alternative trophic pathways for fish consumers in a large river system in the face of invasion
Large rivers are susceptible to anthropogenic alteration, which can result in drastic changes to their functional ecology. We evaluated spatial–temporal changes in the functional fish communities of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) using data from six study reaches. Species were classified into one of 14 feeding guilds and mass per unit effort (MPUE) was then calculated for each feeding g
Authors
John V. Gatto, Brian Ickes, John H. Chick
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) growth across a 1200km human use and ecological disturbance gradient in the Upper Mississippi River System
Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) is a common and widely distributed large-bodied species of the family Catostomidae. It inhabits large rivers and reservoirs of the eastern continental United States (east of the continental Divide) and is most abundant and common in the large rivers of the Midwest and Central Plains, though it does occur as far north and east as the Hudson Bay drainage and as
Authors
Brian Ickes
Assessing the impacts of dams and levees on the hydrologic record of the Middle and Lower Mississippi River, USA
The impacts of dams and levees on the long-term (>130 years) discharge record was assessed along a ~1200 km segment of the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. To aid in our evaluation of dam impacts, we used data from the U.S. National Inventory of Dams to calculate the rate of reservoir expansion at five long-term hydrologic monitoring stations along the stu
Authors
Jonathan W.F. Remo, Brian Ickes, Julia K. Ryherd, Ross J. Guida, Matthew D. Therrell
Can data from disparate long-term fish monitoring programs be used to increase our understanding of regional and continental trends in large river assemblages?
Understanding trends in the diverse resources provided by large rivers will help balance tradeoffs among stakeholders and inform strategies to mitigate the effects of landscape scale stressors such as climate change and invasive species. Absent a cohesive coordinated effort to assess trends in important large river resources, a logical starting point is to assess our ability to draw inferences fro
Authors
Timothy D. Counihan, Ian R. Waite, Andrew F. Casper, David L. Ward, Jennifer S. Sauer, Elise R. Irwin, Colin G. Chapman, Brian Ickes, Craig P. Paukert, John J. Kosovich, Jennifer M. Bayer
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Cooperative Research Units, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Species Management Research Program, Oregon Water Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)
Long-term fish monitoring in large rivers: Utility of “benchmarking” across basins
In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or segments of large rivers, missing opportunities to
Authors
David L. Ward, Andrew F. Casper, Timothy D. Counihan, Jennifer M. Bayer, Ian R. Waite, John J. Kosovich, Colin Chapman, Elise R. Irwin, Jennifer S. Sauer, Brian Ickes, Alexa McKerrow
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Ecosystems Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Gap Analysis Project, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, Species Management Research Program, Southwest Biological Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)
Development and assessment of a new method for combining catch per unit effort data from different fish sampling gears: Multigear mean standardization (MGMS)
Fish community assessments are often based on sampling with multiple gear types. However, multivariate methods used to assess fish community structure and composition are sensitive to differences in the relative scale of indices or measures of abundance produced by different sampling methods. This makes combining data from different sampling gears and methods a serious challenge. We developed a me
Authors
D.K. Gibson-Reinemer, Brian Ickes, John H. Chick
The Mississippi River: A place for fish
The Mississippi River flows 3,734 km from its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota to its outlet at the Gulf of Mexico. Along its course, it collects water from portions of two Canadian provinces and 41 % of the conterminous United States. Although greatly altered for navigation and flood control throughout much of its length, the Mississippi River remains an important fishery resource that provides h
Authors
Harold Schramm, Brian Ickes
Particle size distribution of main-channel-bed sediments along the upper Mississippi River, USA
In this study, we compared pre-lock-and-dam (ca. 1925) with a modern longitudinal survey of main-channel-bed sediments along a 740-km segment of the upper Mississippi River (UMR) between Davenport, IA, and Cairo, IL. This comparison was undertaken to gain a better understanding of how bed sediments are distributed longitudinally and to assess change since the completion of the UMR lock and dam nav
Authors
Jonathan Remo, Ruben A. Heine, Brian Ickes
Are two systemic fish assemblage sampling programmes on the upper Mississippi River telling us the same thing?
We applied an Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) used on Wisconsin/Minnesota waters of the upper Mississippi River (UMR) to compare data from two systemic sampling programmes. Ability to use data from multiple sampling programmes could extend spatial and temporal coverage of river assessment and monitoring efforts. We normalized for effort and tested fish community data collected by the Environmental
Authors
J.T. Dukerschein, A.D. Bartels, B.S. Ickes, M.S. Pearson
Flood trends and river engineering on the Mississippi River system
Along >4000 km of the Mississippi River system, we document that climate, land-use change, and river engineering have contributed to statistically significant increases in flooding over the past 100-150 years. Trends were tested using a database of >8 million hydrological measurements. A geospatial database of historical engineering construction was used to quantify the response of flood levels to
Authors
N. Pinter, A.A. Jemberie, J.W.F. Remo, R.A. Heine, B.S. Ickes