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My training is as both a phycologist (specialist in algae) and aquatic ecologist with broad interests in: 1) the ecology, taxonomy and physiology of algae, 2) aquatic community ecology- foodwebs in lakes and streams, ecology of invasive and nuisance species, habitat restoration. Specific research interests include: 1) impacts and control of Great Lakes invaders and freshwater "green tide" algae, 2) algae - invertebrate - nutrient - heavy metal interactions in aquatic foodwebs, 3) carbon and phosphorus physiology of phytoplankton and macroalgae, 4) phytoplankton sexual mating and the role of phytoplankton spores in regulating the seasonal periodicity algae and in providing ecosystem resistance to perturbations ("resurrection ecology", 5) application of siliceous algal resting spores in paleolimnology. I sponsor laboratory-based projects, and also work in Lake Michigan, small Wisconsin lakes and urban stream ecosystems. Research facilities in my newly-remodeled laboratory provide high quality support for algal and zooplankton culture work, microscopy (including EM & image analysis), experimental algal physiology, data analysis, limnological and stream sampling.
My laboratory group has been comprised of more than 35 individuals over the past ten years, including a post-doctoral fellow, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers. We do both basic and applied research. The laboratory has received extramural grant support from NSF (Systematics, Ecosystems, Ecological Studies, Biological Oceanography), NOAA Sea Grant, Great Lakes Protection Fund, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, The Nature Conservancy and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Recent major projects include: 1) an investigation of changing networks of phytoplankton-zooplankton-nutrient interactions associated with the invasion of Lake Michigan by an exotic predatory zooplankter (Bythotrephes), 2) an evaluation of phytoplankton reproductive responses and the algal microfossil record associated with whole-lake manipulations of fish communities and nutrient loading, 3) tests of predation as a factor influencing the biogeographical distribution of prey species, 4) restoration of ecological function to urban stream ecosystems following concrete removal, 5) foodweb "bottlenecks" associated with nuisance Cladophora in urban streams.
I teach courses in plant diversity, algal biology, plankton ecology and seaweed ecology at UWM. I am also a frequent instructor of seaweeds and marine phytoplankton at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories.
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