Emily Sopkovich

Emily Sopkovich

Graduate Student

Aquatic Ecology Laboratory

Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology

The Ohio State University

Room 200A, Research Center

1314 Kinnear Road

Columbus, Ohio 43212

E-mail: sopkovich.2@osu.edu

AEL: (614) 292-1613

Research Interests:

My current research activity incorporates three distinct but related areas of aquatic ecology and fisheries management: spatial and temporal processes influencing an organism’s distribution and success, bioenergetics evaluation, and the application of acoustic surveys.

Specifically, my research involves experimental determination of how temperature and dissolved oxygen influence juvenile hybrid striped bass feeding, growth and energetics.  Conducting both daytime and nighttime acoustics surveys, along with obtaining temperature and dissolved oxygen profiles across a reservoir, I have also been monitoring habitat characteristics in reservoirs that are currently stocked with hybrid striped bass and in reservoirs that may potentially be stocked in the future.

Using information gained from bioenergetic models and habitat analyses, I hope to develop spatially and temporally explicit maps of hybrid striped bass growth, and thus be able to quantify the suitability of an area of habitat and assist in the expansion of the hybrid striped bass stocking program in Ohio reservoirs. 

Education:

 M.S.     In progress.

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Major: Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology

Advisors: Stuart Ludsin

Thesis Title: A Bioenergetics-Based Evaluation of Hybrid Striped Bass in Ohio Reservoirs.

B.S.        2008.  

The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio

Major: Environmental Science (Biology Concentration), cum laude