News
New NSF Funded Project
September, 2022
We are excited to get started on a new project this fall, EAGER: Using museum specimens to disentangle the impacts of climate change on body-size across species in freshwater fish communities.
Congratulations!
August, 2022
Congratulations to Elise and Cam for finishing their MSc theses! And to Scott who has wrapped up a series of respirometry experiments and is beginning his Michigan Sea Grant Research Fellowship.
CIGLR Working Group on Great Lakes Restoration Benchmarks
May, 2022
Andy and Karen, along with Ed Rutherford (NOAA-GLERL) hosted a working group on benchmarks for Great Lakes Fish restoration -- look for a follow up paper!
Six lab members share research at JASM
May, 2022
Scott, Olivia, Katelyn, Karen, Cam and Elise all presented research at the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Grand Rapids. It was refreshing to return to an in person meeting by the Grand River.
In anticipation of restarting lab research...
April, 2021
Spring is in the air, Walleye are spawning and we are looking forward to bringing spring fingerlings into the lab. And we are hiring a lab manager that will help facilitate this work and other projects in the lab.
CHANGES: Angling for data on Michigan Fishes
March, 2021
Our collaborative project funded by the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) just launched a crowd-source citizen science effort to digitize historical lake survey records which will provide data to understand how climate change, management and other environmental factors have influenced fishes. You can join the effort on Zooniverse.org
Here a piece on Michigan Radio's Stateside about the project here. Or read more on the Great Lakes Echo.
(Logo design by the incredibly talented Calla Beers)
Welcome new Postdoctoral Researchers
Winter, 2021
We are really psyched to welcome three new postdocs in the lab! Andy, Viviana and Katelyn have all joined us (virtually) in the last few months. Looking forward to working with you on some exciting projects.
AFS 2020 Presentations and new projects
Fall, 2020
Kelsey Lucas and Scott Jackson will be presenting lab research at the American Fisheries Society virtual meeting this September. Kelsey has also recently started an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology in which she will be using specimens from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology to examine changes in inland lake fish communities related to shoreline development.
Fall in the time of COVID-19
Fall, 2020
We have had a quiet summer, as COVID-19 has kept us working from home. We would like to welcome Lee, Hannah, Nicholas, Megan, Dede, Justin, Alyssa, Michael and Cameron who are all starting their MSc Programs. Looking forward to a time when we can all get together in person.
NPR Science Friday: Great Lakes Invasions
January, 2020
NPR Science Friday focused their Winter Book Club conversation around Dan Egan’s book ‘The Death and Life of the Great Lakes.’ Karen had the opportunity to join the conversation with David Lodge.
(Image Credit: David Jude)
Welcome Kelsey
July, 2019
A late welcome to Kelsey Lucas who recently defended her PhD and joined us as the first postdoc in the lab. Look for more info soon on Kelsey's research plans.
Visit to the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge with Doris Duke Scholars
July, 2019
Syed Hussain and Ryan Dapkus have joined us for the summer as Doris Duke Conservation Scholars. They recently helped SEAS Masters students Eliza Lugten, Kate Vogel, Matt Puz, Matthew Sens, Olivia Mitchinson in pulling fyke nets at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge where they are doing research for their MS Project: "Planning and implementing monitoring during hydrologic restoration of the Shiawassee Flats floodplain ecosystem”.
M-Cubed Expedition to Upper Mazaruni River
January, 2020
Karen just returned from the Upper Mazaruni River where she is working with Hernan Lopez-Fernandez (EEB) and Aline Cotel (CEE) on a recently funded M-Cubed Project trying to understand the impacts of mining on endemic stream fishes.
Lightning Talks
Winter, 2019
Karen has given a couple of lightening (fast) talks introducing research in the lab which are available on YouTube: Fast Food for Thought and SEAS Conservation and Restoration Theme Lightning Talk Series.
Welcome to New Students
Sept 17, 2018
Kicking off a new year, we are welcoming new Masters students Sarah Brannon, Jennifer Fuller, Seamus Harrison, Natalie Madden and Matthew Sens and Undergrad Hannah Miller. Looking forward to working with you!
Sara presents her work as a CIGLR Great Lakes Summer Fellow
August 2, 2018
SEAS MS student Sara Prendergast spent the this summer in the Great Lakes Summer Fellows Program, in partnership with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLERL) she presented her research on Lake Michigan Alewife at the program's forum. She and all the other fellows did a great job. (image: CIGLR twitter)
Welcome to Doris Duke Conservation Scholar
July 7, 2018
Erika Perez has been working with SEAS MS student Sara Prendergast this summer as a U-M SEAS Doris Duke Conservation Scholar. They have been working on Alewife otoliths from Lake Michigan. In the next couple of weeks Erika will also be collecting morphological data in the lab.
Presentation at Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting in Detroit
May 24th, 2018
Karen presented on Landscape approaches to understanding invasions in inland lakes at the SFS Meeting in Detroit this week. It was great to catch up with colleagues and make many new connections. Looking forward to the American Fisheries Society meeting this August in Atlantic City...
Undergraduate students join the lab for the summer
May 1, 2018
Michael Hostetler (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) and Maxwell LaCosse (Civil and Environmental Engineering) will be joining the lab this summer to collect morphological data on fish specimens from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology and the Royal Ontario Museum. They worked in the lab alongside Olivia Horwedel (Program in the Environment) this Winter and I'm happy they are sticking around!
Finishing the Winter with Ecology of Fishes Course
April 25th, 2018
Finals are over and I've had a great semester teaching Ecology of Fishes for the first time. Despite a few cold days (okay, many cold days), we enjoyed a number of field trips. We even sampled fishes under a foot of ice on Cedar Lake this January. Thanks to an enthusiastic group of students!
Announcing the Alofs Lab at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan!
July 1, 2017
I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining the faculty of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan starting in January 2018!