Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 17:03:30 GMT+6 From: Daniel Bert To: limnos@ccn.cs.dal.ca Subject: introduced piscivores Attn: Shalom M. Mandaville, Co-Ordinator. My name is Dan Bert and I am an honours student at the University of Ottawa. I have recently visited your website and consider it one of the most informative and complete sites I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I have begun what I believe is a long term investigation on the impacts of introduced piscivores on cyprinid community richness and abundance. I am especially interested in the effects of stocking in small North temperate lakes. As you are probably well aware, several researchers have determined that piscivores actively impact cyprinid communities (especially non-spined cyprinids) (ex. Tonn & Paskowski, 1986 and 1990). A recently published paper at the University of Ottawa co-authored by my thesis supervisor Dr. Scott Findlay showed similar impacts by probable non-indigenous piscivore introductions in small lakes in Gatineau Park (Ecoscience 4(3): 259-268 (1997)). Gatineau Park lakes already have very low species diversity, and this coupled with the rapid expansion of the yellow perch in the lake system and ever increasing development and recreational pressure make a rather grim situation look even worse from our standpoint. My project will focus on bioregional impacts of piscivory in an attempt to quantify the effect of piscivory using a risk assessment strategy. The project probably has three major parts (briefly): 1) honours thesis: overview, attempt to develop a general risk assessment model using several key bioregions (ex. Ontario/Quebec, Alberta/BC, Adirondacks/Maine, and Wisconsin). 2) Graduate work: Increase the number of regions and refine the model. 3) Test the model in several key regions (more graduate work). If possible, I would like to ask for any advice or commentary on any or all of the above. I am seeking several data sets on whole lake surveys, especially ones that include stocking history for the lakes. I would greatly appreciate any help that you can provide. Please note that any published material generated from the shared data and/or future collaborations will be fully credited. Since the scope of this project seems to be growing daily, Dr. Findlay and I are planning to launch a website dedicated to data sharing in this area of research. Hopefully, it will be as informative as yours. Thank you in advance. Regards, Daniel G. Bert Dan Bert Biology Department University of Ottawa email: dbert@science.uottawa.ca Phone: 613-562-5800 (ext.4575) Home: 613-241-6258