Stuart A. Ludsin

My research explores mechanisms that regulate fish population and community structure and dynamics, as well as food web interactions, in both freshwater and marine systems. Typically, I have sought to apply my research to resource management problems such that agencies can make informed decisions about the environment. Overall, my research encompasses three broad but interconnected areas:___ 1) UNDERSTANDING LINKAGES BETWEEN AQUATIC SYSTEMS & THEIR WATERSHEDS: Past and current major research projects in this arena have focused on identifying a) generalities among Chesapeake Bay, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and central Lake Erie in terms of the impact of hypoxia on food webs and fisheries production, and b) how external (allochthonous) inputs from the watershed (e.g., nutrients, sediments) influence fish population and community dynamics in Lake Erie.___ 2) EXPLORING THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY LIFE-STAGES TO FISH RECRUITMENT: Past and current projects have focused on a) identifying survival bottlenecks in, and inter-dependencies among, early life stages of largemouth bass, the dominant piscivore in southern reservoirs, b) determining the relative importance of bottom-up (zooplankton availability) versus top-down (predation) processes during the larval stage to yellow perch recruitment to the fishery in Lake Erie, c) exploring the importance of pelagic larval growth and duration to the timing of reef settlement and post-settlement growth in masked gobies on Belizean coral reefs, and d) determining how dispersal of larvae from a major center of origination (Indian and Pacific Oceans) can simultaneously explain both large-scale gradients in coral reef fish species richness and the structure of local reef fish communities; and ___ 3) DEVELOPING NOVEL TOOLS FOR FISHERIES-RELATED RESEARCH: Past and current endeavors have included developing otolith/statolith (ear “stone”) microchemistry as a means to identify natal origins and habitat-use patterns of economically important (yellow perch) or nuisance (sea lamprey) species in freshwater systems, as well as developing lipid analysis and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) as tools to measure fish condition (health).