Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Biological Sciences

Wetland restoration has been at the forefront of Lake Erie restoration activities with many goals including improving water quality and improving ecological function. I aimed to provide information on an indicator species (Northern Pike) to inform restoration activities and predict the suitability of use of newfound wetland habitats by the species. An initial question was to determine if Northern Pike would find and use these newfound habitats; I addressed this by assessing site fidelity using acoustic telemetry. I found that significant spawning site fidelity exists; therefore, a lag effect may be required to quantify use in newly constructed wetlands. I then assessed environmental correlates that correspond to year class strength in Northern Pike. High, stable, water levels were found to be the best indicators of strong year classes. Lastly, I identified fine scale spawning habitat use and found that when present, flooded inundated terrestrial grass was the preferred spawning substrate. When not present, Northern Pike will spawn on other vegetation, although at much lower density. Additionally, there is extensive overlap between the depth of spawning and the magnitude of negative seiches (water draw down due to wind) that occurs during the incubation period. This could indicate a large mortality rate of the vegetation-attached eggs due to desiccation. Future restoration projects should take into account seiche dynamics in the design of the wetland to improve reproductive potential of Northern Pike. Additionally, restored/constructed wetlands in close proximity to established Northern Pike populations would be more likely to have immediate use than more remote locations.

Committee: Jeffrey Miner Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Wendy Watson Ph.D. (Other); Scudder Mackey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kevin McCluney Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dan Wiegmann Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Freshwater Ecology

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Biological Sciences

Over 90 percent of the historical wetlands in the Ohio portion of Lake Erie drainage have been lost, and of those that remain many are diked wetlands that have no surface water connection to Lake Erie. Recent restoration efforts have been made to reconnect these wetlands with the focus of allowing fish species to access these productive wetland habitats. In order to quantify and model the timing of fish movement into one of these reconnected wetlands, a high frequency sonar system (DIDSON) was used during spring of 2017. While all fish entering and leaving the wetland were ensonified, analysis was focused on the highly sought after native Northern Pike and invasive Common Carp to investigate if there are temporal differences in spring spawning migrations between the two species. Additionally, to investigate how fish communities respond when given time after wetland reconnection occurs, an additional study was conducted by sampling fish communities using seine hauls in a variety of coastal Lake Erie wetlands. Wetlands selection was based on encompassing a gradient of time since they were connected to Lake Erie. Wetlands that were only periodically connected to Lake Erie or were very recently reconnected were found to have lower fish diversity.

Committee: Jeff Miner Ph.D (Advisor); John Farver (Committee Member); Robert Huber (Committee Member); Geoffrey Steinhart (Committee Member); Dan Weigman (Committee Member) Subjects: Ecology; Freshwater Ecology; Natural Resource Management

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2012, Biology (Ecology)

Many studies have attempted to quantify spawning and nursery habitat requirements of northern pike (Esox lucius) in marshes, lakes and rivers. These requirements in agricultural streams have been overlooked. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between selected habitat variables and spawning and nursery success for pike in an agricultural landscape linked to Lake Erie. Seines were used to sample nine agricultural streams in the North Branch of the Portage River drainage of northwestern Ohio for adult pike in spring of 2010 (March 29-April 12). Five adult pike (44cm TL, ¿¿¿¿ 12cm, mean ¿¿¿¿ STD) were collected from three streams. The presence of running and spent adult pike identified these streams as spawning habitat. Four weeks later, seines were used to sample for young-of-year (YOY) pike. A total of 174 young-of-year pike were collected in seven streams. Pike lengths (TL) ranged from 39mm to 90mm. Geometric mean densities of YOY were as high as 9.2 pike per 50m stream length. YOY abundance was negatively correlated with levels of suspended solids during low-water conditions (p=0.05), and both stream depth (p=0.03) and width variability (p=0.001). It had a weak positive relationship with in-stream vegetation density (p=0.08). A forward stepwise multiple linear regression model, using these four predictor variables, was significant (p=0.003) and explained 81% of variation in YOY abundance. Results were supported through a principal components analysis. YOY pike abundance was positively correlated with proximity to quality adult pike habitat (p=0.03), however, this relationship may have been influenced by stream maintenance during the spawning migration. This was supported by a nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination; therefore steam maintenance was removed from statistical analyses. Suitable nursery habitat in streams had a homogeneous channel (both width- and depth-wise) in their lower 3 km, dense and diverse vegetation community, an (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Johan Gottgens PhD (Advisor); Elliot Tramer PhD (Committee Member); John Casselman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Environmental Studies; Natural Resource Management; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management