Dr. Mike Colvin is a Research Ecologist at the Columbia Environmental Research Center
Dr. Mike Colvin received a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. He was a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University, where he trained in using structured decision-making and adaptive management of natural resources. As an assistant and associate professor at Mississippi State University, he taught courses in fisheries science, fisheries management, and natural resource decision-making. His research group applied decision-making approaches to conserving and managing aquatic resources. He joined the USGS in 2022 as a research ecologist.
Mike’s research efforts integrate management actions, monitoring, and research with structured decision-making and adaptive management. Current research areas include
- Supporting science components and decision analysis for endangered pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River,
- Adaptive management program development for invasive carps,
- Developing decision support tools for species status assessments of aquatic species in the southeast US, and
- Applying structured decision-making and adaptive management to natural resource problems.
Professional Experience
2022-present: Research Ecologist, USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, Columbia, MO
2020-2022: Associate Professor, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS
2014-2020: Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS
2012-2014: Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. in Fisheries Resources, Iowa State University, 2012
M.S. in Fisheries Biology, University of Idaho, 2005
B.S. Unity College, 2000
Affiliations and Memberships*
American Fisheries Society
Science and Products
Comprehensive Sturgeon Research Project (CSRP)
Invasive Carp Species Section
Selection of habitat-enhancing plants depends on predator-prey interactions
Catch rates for sturgeon chubs and sicklefin chubs in the Upper Missouri River 2004–2016 and correlations with biotic and abiotic variables
Themes of contemporary inland fisheries goals
Pallid sturgeon seasonal habitat selection in a large free-flowing river, the lower Mississippi River
A food web modeling assessment of Asian Carp impacts in the Middle and Upper Mississippi River, USA
Overview and progress of the pallid sturgeon assessment framework redesign process
Bend-scale geomorphic classification and assessment of the Lower Missouri River from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mississippi River for application to pallid sturgeon management
Influences of landscape heterogeneity on home-range sizes of brown bears
Assessment of adult pallid sturgeon fish condition, Lower Missouri River—Application of new information to the Missouri River Recovery Program
Preparing future fisheries professionals to make good decisions
Semi-discrete biomass dynamic modeling: an improved approach for assessing fish stock responses to pulsed harvest events
Strategies to control a common carp population by pulsed commercial harvest
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
R code for calculating imperilment of freshwater fish with a Bayesian belief network
Science and Products
- Science
Comprehensive Sturgeon Research Project (CSRP)
The Comprehensive Sturgeon Research Project (CSRP) is a multidisciplinary project conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Missouri River Recovery Program–Integrated Science Program. CERC scientists are working with river scientists and managers to develop methods, baseline information, and research approaches that are critical contributions to recovery success of the...Invasive Carp Species Section
Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and the closely related silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) (together, the bigheaded carps) and black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) are rapidly expanding in numbers and distribution in the Mississippi and Missouri River basins. - Publications
Selection of habitat-enhancing plants depends on predator-prey interactions
Shallow areas of drawdown reservoirs are often devoid of adequate fish habitat due to degradation associated with unnatural and relatively invariable cycles of exposure and flooding. One method of enhancing fish habitat in these areas is to sow exposed shorelines with agricultural plants to provide structure once flooded. It remains unclear if some plants may be more suitable than others to providAuthorsG. Coppola, Leandro E. Miranda, M. E. Colvin, H. R. Hatcher, M. A. LashleyCatch rates for sturgeon chubs and sicklefin chubs in the Upper Missouri River 2004–2016 and correlations with biotic and abiotic variables
A multiweek standardized sampling regime during 2004–2016 in a 60-km reach of the Upper Missouri River assessed reproduction and catch rates for Sturgeon Chub Macrhybopsis gelida and Sicklefin Chub Macrhybopsis meeki. We sampled age-0 Macrhybopsis (primarily Sturgeon Chubs, but potentially including Sicklefin Chubs) all years to indicate successful reproduction, but noted an inverse correlation ofAuthorsPatrick Braaten, David B. Fuller, Tyler M. Haddix, John R. Hunziker, Michael E. Colvin, Luke M. Holmquist, Ryan H. WilsonThemes of contemporary inland fisheries goals
Goals are important for the effective execution of public trust responsibilities by state inland fisheries bureaus, but formulating meaningful goals is not simple. Often bureaus look to their past and to their sister bureaus in neighboring states when crafting goals for their own freshwater resources. Herein, we review the goal themes of fisheries bureaus using publicly available documents and guiAuthorsC.A. Aldridge, Leandro E. Miranda, M. E. ColvinPallid sturgeon seasonal habitat selection in a large free-flowing river, the lower Mississippi River
Pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus (Forbes & Richardson, 1905, Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, 1905, 7, 37) are an endangered riverine sturgeon native to the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and declining numbers have been attributed to multiple stressors, including habitat loss and alteration. The lower Mississippi River provides a useful context to assess pallid sAuthorsP. T. Kroboth, D. A. Hann, M. E. Colvin, P. D. Hartfield, H. L. Jr. SchrammA food web modeling assessment of Asian Carp impacts in the Middle and Upper Mississippi River, USA
The invasion of non-native fishes has caused a great detriment to many of our native fishes. Since the introduction of invasive carps, such as Silver, Bighead, Common and Grass Carp, managers and researcher have been struggling to remove these species while also hypothesizing the detriment of further invasion. This study developed a food web model of four locations on the Mississippi River and useAuthorsNicholas W. Kramer, Quinton E. Phelps, Clay Pierce, Michael E. ColvinOverview and progress of the pallid sturgeon assessment framework redesign process
The Pallid Sturgeon Population Assessment Program (PSPAP) was initiated in 2003, and full implementation began in 2006, to monitor the trend of Scaphirhynchus albus (pallid sturgeon) and native fish communities in the Upper and Lower Missouri River Basins. The original PSPAP (v. 1.0) was a catch-effort based monitoring program where population abundance and trend were monitored using a relative inAuthorsMichael E. Colvin, Sara Reynolds, Robert B. Jacobson, Landon L. Pierce, Kirk D. Steffensen, Timothy L. WelkerBend-scale geomorphic classification and assessment of the Lower Missouri River from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mississippi River for application to pallid sturgeon management
Management actions intended to increase growth and survival of pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) age-0 larvae on the Lower Missouri River require a comprehensive understanding of the geomorphic habitat template of the river. The study described here had two objectives relating to where channel-reconfiguration projects should be located to optimize effectiveness. The first objective was to devAuthorsRobert B. Jacobson, Michael E. Colvin, Edward A. Bulliner, Darcy Pickard, Caroline M. ElliottInfluences of landscape heterogeneity on home-range sizes of brown bears
Animal space use is influenced by many factors and can affect individual survival and fitness. Under optimal foraging theory, individuals use landscapes to optimize high-quality resources while minimizing the amount of energy used to acquire them. The spatial resource variability hypothesis states that as patchiness of resources increases, individuals use larger areas to obtain the resources necesAuthorsLindsey S. Mangipane, Jerrold L. Belant, Tim L. Hiller, Michael E. Colvin, David Gustine, Buck A. Mangipane, Grant V. HilderbrandAssessment of adult pallid sturgeon fish condition, Lower Missouri River—Application of new information to the Missouri River Recovery Program
During spring 2015, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) biologists noted that pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) were in poor condition during sampling associated with the Pallid Sturgeon Population Assessment Project and NGPC’s annual pallid sturgeon broodstock collection effort. These observations prompted concerns that reduced fish condition could compromise reproductive health and poAuthorsMichael T. Randall, Michael E. Colvin, Kirk D. Steffensen, Timothy L. Welker, Landon L. Pierce, Robert B. JacobsonPreparing future fisheries professionals to make good decisions
Future fisheries professionals will face decision-making challenges in an increasingly complex field of fisheries management. Though fisheries students are well trained in the use of the scientific method to understand the natural world, they are rarely exposed to structured decision making (SDM) as part of an undergraduate or graduate education. Specifically, SDM encourages users (e.g., students,AuthorsMichael E. Colvin, James PetersonSemi-discrete biomass dynamic modeling: an improved approach for assessing fish stock responses to pulsed harvest events
Continuous harvest over an annual period is a common assumption of continuous biomass dynamics models (CBDMs); however, fish are frequently harvested in a discrete manner. We developed semidiscrete biomass dynamics models (SDBDMs) that allow discrete harvest events and evaluated differences between CBDMs and SDBDMs using an equilibrium yield analysis with varying levels of fishing mortality (F). EAuthorsClay Pierce, Michael E. Colvin, Timothy W. StewartStrategies to control a common carp population by pulsed commercial harvest
Commercial fisheries are commonly used to manage nuisance fishes in freshwater systems, but such efforts are often unsuccessful. Strategies for successfully controlling a nuisance population of common carp Cyprinus carpio by pulsed commercial harvest were evaluated with a combination of (1) field sampling, (2) population estimation and CPUE indexing, and (3) simulation using an exponential semidisAuthorsMichael E. Colvin, Clay Pierce, Timothy W. Stewart, Scott E. GrummerNon-USGS Publications**
Richardson, B.M., Griffin, M.J., Colvin, M.E., Wise, D.J., Ware, C., Mischke, C.C., Greenway, T.E., Byars, T.S., Hanson, L.A., and Lawrence, M.L., 2021, Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and occupancy models to estimate atypical Aeromonas hydrophila (aAh) prevalence in catfish: Aquaculture, v. 530, p. 735687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.735687Shirley, C.A., Colvin, M.E., Tiersch, T.R., and Allen, P.J., 2021, A generalized approach for sperm cryopreservation in the genus Pomoxis: Sperm cryopreservation and fertilization efficiency of black-stripe black crappie, Pomoxis nigromaculatus: Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, v. 52, no. 2, p. 405-417. https://doi.org/10.1111/jwas.12763Schumann, D.A., Colvin, M.E., Campbell, R.L., Wagner, M.D., and Schwarz, D.E., 2021, Suitability of passive integrated transponder tags and a new monitoring technique for at-risk madtoms (Noturus spp.): Endangered Species Research, v. 44, p. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01086Norris, D.M., Hatcher, H.R., Colvin, M.E., Coppola, G., Lashley, M.A., and Miranda, L.E., 2020, Assessing Establishment and Growth of Agricultural Plantings on Reservoir Mudflats: North American Journal of Fisheries Management, v. 40, no. 2, p. 394-405. https://doi.org/10.1002/nafm.10419
Jargowsky, M.B., Cooper, P.T., Ajemian, M.J., Colvin, M.E., and Drymon, J.M., 2020, Discerning the dietary habits of the smooth butterfly ray Gymnura lessae using two distinct methods, otolith identification and metagenetics: Journal of Fish Biology, v. 96, no. 2, p. 434-443. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.14221Coppola, G., Miranda, L.E., Colvin, M.E., Hatcher, H.R., and Lashley, M.A., 2019, Submergence responses of cool-season annual plants and potential for fish habitat: North American Journal of Fisheries Management, v. 39, no. 6, p. 1269-1276. https://doi.org/10.1002/nafm.10359Shaw, S.B., Beslity, J.O., and Colvin, M.E., 2019, Working towards a more holistic set of hydrologic principles to teach nonhydrologists: Five simple concepts within catchment hydrology: Hydrological Processes, v. 33, no. 16, p. 2258-2262. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13485
Ivey, M.R., Colvin, M., Strickland, B.K., and Lashley, M.A., 2019, Reduced vertebrate diversity independent of spatial scale following feral swine invasions: Ecology and Evolution, v. 9, no. 13, p. 7761-7767. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5360Hatcher, H.R., Miranda, L.E., Colvin, M.E., Coppola, G., and Lashley, M.A., 2019, Fish assemblages in a Mississippi reservoir mudflat with low structural complexity: Hydrobiologia, v. 841, no. 1, p. 163-175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-019-04019-wGuy, E.L., Mischke, C.C., Colvin, M.E., and Allen, P.J., 2019, Zooplankton selectivity by black buffalo in fertilized ponds: North American Journal of Aquaculture, v. 81, no. 3, p. 215-221. https://doi.org/10.1002/naaq.10089
Katzenmeyer, E.D., Colvin, M.E., Stewart, T.W., Pierce, C.L., and Grummer, S.E., 2019, Fish growth changes over time in a Midwestern USA lake: Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, v. 148, no. 2, p. 493-506. https://doi.org/10.1002/tafs.10149Gallardo, J.C., Vilella, F.J., and Colvin, M.E., 2019, A seasonal population matrix model of the Caribbean red-tailed hawk Buteo jamaicensis jamaicensis in eastern Puerto Rico: Ibis, v. 161, no. 2, p. 459-466. https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12703
Colvin, M.E., Peterson, J.T., Sharpe, C., Kent, M.L., and Schreck, C.B., 2018, Identifying optimal hauling densities for adult chinook salmon trap and haul operations: River Research and Applications, v. 34, no. 9, p. 1158-1167. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3348
Gilliland, C.R., Colvin, M.E., Rush, S.A., and Reagan, S., 2018, American alligators are predators of Paddlefish: An undocumented predator-prey linkage affecting Paddlefish population dynamics: Food Webs, v. 16, p. e00087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00087
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
- Software
R code for calculating imperilment of freshwater fish with a Bayesian belief network
This R script is reproduces a Bayesian belief network built within the propriety software program, Netica. The R- and Netica-based belief networks were used in Dunn and Schumann et al. (in press), which presents an approach for calculating imperilment of freshwater fishes.
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government