As ecosystem engineers, beavers punctuate stream continua over space and time through the construction of dams that retain water and establish open meadow habitats. Using space-for-time substitution to sample streams with impoundments at different stages of the beaver dam "life cycle," from intact dam, to breached dam, to recovering wetland, we aim to measure the influence of beaver activity on aquatic insect community composition and basal resource use in Adirondack streams.

MS Student: Abby Hullihen

Remote, small lakes of the Adirondacks provide critical refuge habitat for brook trout in their native range. However, the interacting effects of climate warming and browning on these systems threatens their ability to support brook trout, which require cold, highly oxygenated habitat. We aim to determine how seasonal changes in oxythermal habitat availability may affect brook trout foraging behavior and nutrition and how depth and density of deep chlorophyll maxima in these systems may help mitigate effects of oxygen depletion, thereby improving forage opportunities in healthy brook trout populations.

MS Student: Jack Marshall

Northern pike are keystone predators that rely on provision of habitat and forage from wetland habitat, especially during the juvenile life stage. In the St. Lawrence River, where northern pike are native, populations are under threat due in part to the dominance of non-native aquatic vegetation in wetland habitat. In the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, Cranberry Lake has become a destination for northern pike fishing. In Cranberry Lake, northern pike are non-native but wetlands are still dominated by native aquatic vegetation. We aim to compare the ways in which juvenile northern pike interact with their wetland habitats in the St. Lawrence River and Cranberry Lake to inform conservation and management of northern pike in both systems.

Co-PI: John Farrell; Funded by New York Sea Grant

MS Students: Ben Spitz and Matt Foli