Research

Philosophy

We seek to identify and understand key processes which drive the behavior of fishes and to then apply this knowledge to invasive species control and remediation of environmental contamination. Chemical cues are recognized to be of special significance. We focus on cyprinid fishes.

Key Research Questions

  1. How and why do fish employ chemical signaling systems to recognize habitat, conspecifics, and habitat:
    • What are the chemical signaling systems employed by fish, and how have they evolved?
    • How do fish nervous systems discern chemical signals?
    • How does pollution interfere with these systems?
  2. What ecological and physiological factors drive the distribution and abundance of fishes?
    • What role does recruitment and migration play in these processes?
    • What role do pheromones have in these processes and how might they be used to control fish populations?
    • How can these processes be modeled?
    • What is different about invasive species, and how can they be modeled?

Ongoing Projects

Graduate Programs

Carp spawning.Because our interests are interdisciplinary, we work with many programs including:

Undergraduate Programs

Undergraduates from all backgrounds are welcome.

Facilities

We have excellent facilities including two large wet labs for holding and studying fish behavior, several large mazes, software for collecting and analyzing fish behavior, electrophysiology rigs, current meter, cameras, an HPLC, EIA plate reader, and scintillation counter. We also have ready access to much specialized equipment (mass spectrometery, nuclear magnetic resonance, etc.) in adjacent labs.

Collaborators

We have many international (Australia, Canada, U.K., Portugal), national (US Fish & Wildlife Service, E.P.A., Michigan State University, etc.) and local (D.N.R., U. of Minnesota Duluth) collaborators.