Standardized early life monitoring programs for Cisco (Coregonus artedi) and Lake Whitefish (C. clupeaformis) are needed to evaluate outcomes of restoration interventions (Bunnell et al. 2023), but designing surveys that effectively sample each species ultimately...
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Egg & Larval Ecology
What physical conditions reduce Bloater embryo survival and development?
Conservation and restoration of Cisco (Coregonus artedi) and Bloater (C. hoyi) is ongoing across the Great Lakes (Bunnell et al. 2023). In Lake Ontario over 1,000,000 Bloater have been released from 2012 – 2020, with modest bottom trawl recaptures (n=24) and no...
Developing evaluation methods for stocked cisco in Lake Erie
Chemical composition of incubation substrates and their effect on survival of cisco (Coregonus artedi) embryos
Lake Superior Bloater Reproductive Biology
Determining when and how Cisco and Lake Whitefish recruitment can be reliably indexed to support evaluation, restoration, and management
Do hardened shoreline habitats help or hurt? Quantifying the extent of coregonine spawning and egg incubation suitability on human-modified habitats in Lake Ontario
Conserving and restoring Cisco (Coregonus artedi) and Lake Whitefish (C. clupeaformis) populations is a management objective within individual Great Lakes and at the basin scale. Similar to other fishes of conservation concern, anthropogenic changes to spawning...
Evaluating Bloater (Coregonus hoyi) natural reproduction in Lake Ontario
Evaluation of fisheries restoration actions such as the reestablishment of coregonine populations requires a life stage approach to evaluate program success and improve understanding on potential recruitment bottlenecks. Prior to their extirpation, Lake Ontario...
Testing habitat’s influence on Cisco reproductive success using egg translocation
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative studies from the Coordinated Science and Monitoring Initiative, Native Fish Restoration, and DOI Steering Committee from fiscal years 2018 - 2022 have rapidly improved our understanding of how habitat influences coregonine spawning...
How have changes to coregonine spawning habitat influenced reproductive success?
Lake Ontario’s Cisco, Coregonus artedi, and Lake Whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis populations have declined for centuries and surveys suggest populations are impeded during early life stages. This project developed methods to quantify habitat specific coregonine egg...
Development of conceptual early life history models and evaluation of sampling techniques in support of long-term monitoring for cisco and lake whitefish
Recruitment is set early during life (<2 years of age) for many fish populations (Hjort 1914, Houde 1987). From fertilization to juvenile stages, fishes are susceptible to abiotic and biotic factors that directly or indirectly influence growth, condition, and survival (Ludsin et al. 2014, Pritt et al. 2014). The mechanistic processes influencing recruitment, their interactions,and the timing at which they are most influential remains unclear for many fishes. By improving understanding of early life history (ELH) ecology and recruitment constraints, we can improve monitoring and support more informed management decisions. Long-term ELH monitoring programs that inform management are limited for cisco (Coregonus artedi) across the Great Lakes.
Quantifying a potential mechanism between ice cover and cisco recruitment success: what role does light play in cisco embryonic development and larval survival?
Over the past several decades, Coregonus recruitment has dwindled to unprecedented levels for unknown reasons. Coregonus species are fall spawners whose embryos incubate under ice throughout the winter and hatch in spring. Recent changes in ice cover coupled with poor...