Geological Survey

Description

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Great Lakes Science Center is offering a funding opportunity for a new research project seeking to describe the morphology and functional role of native prey fishes in the Great Lakes. This work is in support of ongoing and proposed restoration effort by fishery managers to restore or enhance native prey fishes in Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Michigan. To inform these restoration decisions, scientists need to resolve ongoing taxonomic issues surrounding native coregonines (deepwater ciscoes, ciscoes, or whitefishes). Managers are most interested in the functional differences (i.e., do they feed at different trophic levels or on different prey) among these species that have relatively small differences in morphology and how their functional role overlaps with abundant non-native prey fishes (alewife, rainbow smelt). Working with agency partners, the USGS has collected native and non-native prey fish species from Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Ontario. Using these archived fish, the objectives are to 1) describe the morphology of the native prey fishes 2) determine the functional role of the native and non-native species in each lake, and 3) seek to relate the morphological traits to the functional role in the food web.

Who can apply

• Others

Contact

Faith Graves 703-648-7356<br/>fgraves@usgs.gov
fgraves@usgs.gov