Research at OSU's Aquatic Ecology Laboratory

The goal of our research is to understand population and community structure and dynamics in aquatic systems. Our work deals primarily with aquatic organisms, with special emphasis on fishes. We use a variety of techniques, including controlled laboratory and hatchery pond experiments, experiments and surveys in natural systems, and optimality and simulation modeling of individuals and populations. We work in different settings, including the streams, natural lakes, and impoundments of Ohio, the Laurentian Great Lakes, estuaries along the Pacific Coast, and even the coral reefs of Hawaii. We believe the strength of our program revolves around the use of ideas from basic ecology (e.g., life history theory, resource partitioning, bioenergetics modeling, etc.) to answer questions in conservation and fishery biology. Our goal is to contribute both to an understanding of how aquatic populations and communities operate and to the development of solid principles upon which fisheries and conservation science can be based.

Read more about current research projects by clicking the links below:

• Habitat and prey mapping linked to predator movement
   
  
• Quantifying stock structure in Lake Erie yellow perch.
    
• Food web structure and PCBs in Lake Erie
   
• Influence of parental attributes on walleye early life history stages
   
• Assessing how temperature/chemistry influences otolith composition

• Annual growth of Lake Erie walleye, and its effect on recruitment
    
• Genetic differentiation within unionid mussel species
   

Read more about recently completed projects by AEL  alumni by clicking the links below:

• Percid stocking and bioenergetics in reservoirs

• Using otoliths to assess homing in Lake Erie walleye

• How round goby influence PCB transfer to smallmouth bass

• Correlating walleye year-class strength across the Great Lakes

For a complete list of published work see our Reprint List.

For more past projects, see our AEL Alumni list.

AEL researchers have conducted numerous projects
in Lake Erie, including the Bass Islands.

Fall sampling at Pleasant Hill Reservoir, Ohio.

Winter at Old Woman Creek, a wetland along the shore of Lake Erie.