Michelle R Bartsch (Former Employee)

Inferences about ecological structure and function are often made using elemental or macromolecular tracers of food web structure. For example, inferences about food chain length are often made using stable isotope ratios of top predators and consumer food sources are often inferred from both stable isotopes and fatty acid (FA) content in consumer tissues. The use of FAs as tracers...

Increased nutrient and sediment loading in rivers have caused observable changes in algal community composition, and thereby, altered the quality and quantity of food resources available to native freshwater mussels. Our objective was to characterize the relationship between nutrient conditions and mussel food quality and examine the effects on fatty acid composition, growth and survival...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has shown promise as a tool to control movements of invasive Asian carp, but its effects on native freshwater biota have not been well studied. The authors evaluated lethal and sublethal responses of juvenile fatmucket (Lampsilis siliquoidea) mussels to CO2 at levels (43–269 mg/L, mean concentration) that bracket concentrations effective for deterring carp movement...

Lake Erie is a large lake straddling the border of the U.S. and Canada that has become increasingly eutrophic in recent years. Eutrophication is particularly focused in the shallow western basin. The western basin of Lake Erie is hydrodynamically similar to a large estuary, with riverine inputs from the Detroit and Maumee Rivers mixing together and creating gradients in chemical and...

Large river systems are often thought to contain a mosaic of patches with different habitat characteristics driven by differences in flow and mixing environments. Off-channel habitats (e.g., backwater areas, secondary channels) can become semi-isolated from main-channel water inputs, leading to the development of distinct biogeochemical environments. Observations of adult bluegill...

Freshwater mussels are ecologically and economically important members of many aquatic ecosystems, but are globally among the most imperiled taxa. Propagation techniques for mussels have been developed and used to boost declining and restore extirpated populations. Here we use a cohort of propagated mussels to estimate the intrinsic variability in size and growth rate of Lampsilis...