Current
Research and Collaboration Projects
- Formulating a risk assessment of
the
effects
of New Zealand mud snail on macroinvertebrates in the Madison River, MT
and Firehole and Gibbon Rivers of Yellowstone National Park.
- Characterizing the effects of
peak
loading
and hydroelectric operations in the Snake River, ID on threatened
snail, Taylorconcha
serpenticola (Bliss Rapids Snail) with David Hopper US Fish and Wildlife Service..
- New Zealand Mud Snail web site
which
provides
up to date information on distribution, publications and resources with
USFWS Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, and Dan
Gustafson
MSU.
- Characterizing Myxozoan types and
monitoring Myxobolus
cerebralis infection on the Madison River, MT with Leah Steinbach
Elwell
MSU and Richard Vincent MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
- The viability of Myxobolus
cerebralis
myxospores after passage through the alimentary canal of avian
piscivores
in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with Leah Steinbach Elwell MSU and
Todd Koel Yellowstone National Park.
Graduate
Student Research
- Myxobolus cerebralis in
native
cutthroat
trout of 3 spawning tributaries to Yellowstone Lake: a qualitative
ecological
risk assessment with Silvia
Murcia in collaboration with Todd Koel of Yellowstone National
Park.
Silvia has examined whirling disease infection in Yellowstone
cutthroat
trout over several seasons and is correlating this to physicochemical
attributes
in three tributaries. Silvia has used tools such as sentinel cage
trout, histology, and PCR to assess the magnitude of infection in the
population
and location of clinical infection within cutthroat trout.
- The spatial dynamics of Myxobolus
cerebralis
infection in drainages within Pelican Valley of Yellowstone National
Park
with Julie
Alexander
in collaboration with Todd Koel of Yellowstone National Park, and Jim
Winton
and Charlotte Rasmussen of USGS Western Fisheries Research
Laboratory.
Julie spent her first field season in 2004 determining the locations of
"hotspots" for M. cerebralis parasite release from tubificids
throughout
the Pelican drainage in Yellowstone Park. She is using molecular
tools to determine the species of parasite and the prevalence of
infection
of Tubifex tubifex in the Pelican Valley at the USGS
Western Fisheries Research Laboratory, Seattle, WA. We aim to
develop
tools for managers to predict whirling disease concentrations and M.
cerebralis success by combining these types of data.
- Whirling disease risk and
biological
stream
integrity in Montana watersheds with Stephanie
McGinnis. Stephanie has been manipulating one of the
largest whirling disease data sets ever collected. She is using
macroinvertebrate
and sentinel cage data and from Blackfoot, Rock Creek, Madison and
Missouri
River watersheds from 1997-2000, and GIS land use data to identify
relationships
among biological stream integrity, anthropogenic disturbances and
whirling
disease. The goal is to identify watershed characteristics that
influence
whirling disease risk and contribute to the development of effective
managment
practices for Montana watersheds.
- Biological
monitoring
and biological assessment of aquatic ecosystems using benthic
macroinvertebrates
with Brett
Marshall.
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