How do zebra mussels affect walleye recruitment, food webs, and mercury concentrations? - Naomi Blinick and Holly Kundel
Zebra mussels have wide-ranging impacts in lakes, including changes in water quality and nutrient availability. We are investigating how walleye recruitment, feeding habits, and mercury concentrations are changing with zebra mussel invasion across Minnesota lakes. View the poster PDF.
Cattail removal for ecosystem Enhancement - Michael Tuma
This project aims to determine whether or not small scale removals of hybrid cattail (Typha x glauca) can increase lakeshore native plant community diversity and how success may vary regionally across Minnesota. View the poster PDF.
Can Small-Scale Cattail Removal Positively Impact Nearshore Fish Communities Across Minnesota? - by Brendan Nee
We seek to understand the ecological effects of hybrid cattail (Typha x glauca) on fish communities and determine if small-scale removal can positively affect fish abundance and diversity in lakes across Minnesota. View the poster PDF.
Integrating Professional and Citizen Monitoring to Improve Surveillance - John Fieberg
This project will develop a modeling framework for integrating professional and citizen-science data, leading to smarter surveillance and improved estimates of AIS distribution that account for imperfect detection and sampling biases. Structured surveys performed by professionals provide high quality data for invasive species surveillance, but the high costs associated with these surveys limit their use. View the poster PDF.
Interactions Between Koi Herpes Virus (KHV) and Transmission and Management of Invasive Common Carp (Cyprinus Carpio) - Aidan Neher
This project uses Lake Elysian, MN, as a model system and simulation to evaluate the impact of KHV on common carp in a lake and any interactions between KHV transmission dynamics and current common carp management strategies. View the poster.
Optimization of Environmental DNA Methods for Improving Detection Probability of Multiple AIS - Anna Totsch
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has the potential to detect AIS invasion early over traditional sampling. However, eDNA methodologies are not fully optimized to establish AIS prevalence and early detection. This study aims to evaluate a variety of eDNA sampling methods including the number, location and volume of water sampled, filter pore size, and molecular biological methods to maximize detection probability of multiple AIS. View the poster PDF.
Local and landscape-level effectiveness of aquatic invasive species prevention - Nichole Angell
Our goal is to quantify the effectiveness of AIS management practices completed by boaters and professional watercraft inspectors. To obtain pertinent data we will imitate a typical boat inspection scenario and ask individuals to inspect and remove items from a boat staged with dead and preserved AIS. We will determine each individual's inspection effectiveness and couple that with their AIS experience to allow for a better understanding of the efficacy of AIS prevention techniques. This data will be used to create decision support tools that will make the task of determining where to best place AIS prevention resources more attainable for managers. View the poster PDF.
Raising zebra mussels in the MAISRC lab - Ben Minerich
Live Q+A with Ben following lunchtime viewing of the new MAISRC video about his work. Ben will go into more details about the project, share recent photos, and answer questions. View an advance preview of Ben's video.
Using bacterial communication to reduce the spread of aquatic invasive species - Mikael Elias and Reed Jacobson
Aquatic biofouling costs millions of dollars per year as it increases drag on vessels thus reducing speed and fuel efficiency, can lead to biocorrosion, and can transmit aquatic invasive species that attach to vessels. Aquatic biofouling is heavily dependent on bacterial communication, as bacteria must communicate to form a biofilm to provide a matrix for larger organism attachment. This project incorporates proteins into paint to prevent bacterial communication to prevent bacterial biofilm, thus reducing the attachment of larger aquatic organisms. View the poster PDF.