Mark Vinson, PhD (Former Employee)

Four lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush, Walbaum 1792 morphs occur in Lake Superior: lean, siscowet, humper, and redfin. Diets of lean and siscowet have been relatively well described. However, less is known about diets of humper and redfin, and overall few studies have been conducted at offshore shoals. We compared gut content data among mature (357–867 mm) sympatric lake trout morphs...

Fatty acids are well-established biomarkers used to characterize trophic ecology, food-web linkages, and the ecological niche of many different taxa. Most often, fatty acids that are examined include only those previously identified as “dietary” or “extended dietary” biomarkers. Fatty acids considered as nondietary biomarkers, however, represent numerous fatty acids that can be extracted...

Several species of ciscoes Coregonus, subgenus Leucichthys that are native to the Laurentian Great Lakes are rare or extirpated. The restoration of Coregonus fishes is being actively pursued through stocking, and success may depend on the availability of unoccupied niche space. We described the spring–summer habitat occupancy and diets of three native cisco species (Bloater Coregonus...

The Lake Superior fish community was sampled in 2019 with daytime bottom trawls at 76 nearshore and 35 offshore stations distributed throughout the lake. In the nearshore zone, 25,131 fish from 24 species or morphotypes were collected. The number of species collected at nearshore stations ranged from 0 to 15, with a mean of 5.6 and median of five. Nearshore mean biomass was 5.7 kg/ha...

In 2017, the Lake Superior fish community was sampled with daytime bottom trawls at 76 nearshore and 36 offshore stations. Spring nearshore and summer offshore water temperatures in 2017 were similar to slightly cooler than the 1991-2017 average. In the nearshore zone, a total of 28,902 individual fish from 27 species or morphotypes were collected. The number of species collected at each...

ge estimates of Lake Superior Kiyis Coregonus kiyi from scales and otoliths were compared and 12 years (2003–2014) of length frequency data were examined to assess year‐class strength and validate age estimates. Ages estimated from otoliths were precise and were consistently older than ages estimated from scales. Maximum otolith‐derived ages were 20 years for females and 12 years for...