E-Mail: don.pereira@dnr.state.mn.us
Senior Research Biologist, Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources, Sect. of Fisheries; Adjunct Asst. Professor, Univ. of MN, Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife
Background
I grew up in a suburb of Boston and developed a strong interest in aquatic biology while fishing as a youngster. I decided to major in general biology as opposed to wildlife biology as an undergraduate at the University of Vermont mainly because the curriculum provided more flexibility. However, I did work for Dr. George LaBar as an undergraduate and spent several summers on Lake Champlain. This experience bolstered my interest in aquatic biology and graduate school brought me to Minnesota in 1980. While my masters research focused on environmental physiology, I became more interested in quantitative fisheries science through my coursework. I began my career as a research biologist with the Minnesota DNR in 1983 and conducted studies on fish population dynamics. In 1987, Dr. George Spangler enticed me back in to academia to work on my Ph.D. While researching the fish community dynamics of the Red Lakes in northwestern Minnesota, my colleagues and I discovered very long lived freshwater drum. Some samples archived around 1950 were 72 years old! We developed a growth history dating from 1879 to the present, and thus was born "biochronology." I am currently securing freshwater drum otolith samples from around the continent to look at the biogeographical distribution of recruitment and growth of this species. After returning to the Minnesota DNR in 1991, I have continued my interest in Minnesota's "Large Walleye Lakes" with studies on recruitment dynamics of walleye. This work includes analysis of microstructure (i.e. daily rings) of larval walleye. I am also active in the Biochronology group as an adjunct assistant professor in fisheries.
Activities/Interests/Plans
I am interested in further developing the use of aquatic organisms as environmental indicators. Some of my recent research has investigated the use of fish population parameters for indexing climate events and possibly climate change.
Recent initiatives in Minnesota include prototype projects to develop ecosystem based natural resource management at the watershed scale. I am currently in the early stages of developing two research projects to conducted in conjunction with the watershed program. The first will attempt to use Minnesota DNR's vast fish population assessment database to develop indices of biotic integrith for lake ecosystems. This tool could be used to measure progress in lake restoration that will hopefully arise from the success of the new watershed programs. My second new project will extrapolate the work of Drs. Yosef Cohen and John Pastor from boreal forests to watersheds. This will entail developing a spatially dynamic simulation model of an entire watershed to investigate various potential scenarios for restoration.
My future plans are to expand my research interests to address ecological issues at the scale of landscapes.
Other Interesting Things
I enjoy a wide variety of outdoor interestes. As an angler I am both a generalist and an opportunist; from salmon in Alaska, to bluegill in Minnesota, to bluefish off Cape Cod. In the past four years I have developed strong interests in hunting wild turkey and bow hunting for whitetail deer. I also enjoy canoeing (e.g. the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota), and am currently taking a class to advance my skills in outdoor photography. On the home front, I enjoy gardening and collaborating with billions and billions of tiny yeast cells in converting sugars to CO2 and alcohol (both barley and grape sugars). For physical activities I enjoy general fitness (one marathon under my belt) and a variety of team sports including ice hockey, and an occasional "old boys" rugby match. I am also a generalist when it comes to music, but gravitate to "musical roots" such as blues and folk (e.g. bluegrass).