Fish and food webs in a changing environment
We are exploring how fish and their food webs respond to spatial and temporal variation in a variety of ecosystem types. The goal is to increase fundamental understanding about aquatic ecosystem functioning across spatially variable landscapes, and over seasonal and interannual time scales. We are also generating applied knowledge to help better manage and protect fish in the face of global climate change.
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Temperate lakes
The cold winters and warm summers in Ontario provide an excellent opportunity to study how food webs rearrange seasonally from ice-covered to open water periods. Ontario is also home to hundreds of thousands of lakes, providing a vast landscape with which to explore variation in food web structure and consequences for fish production. The McMeans lab works closely with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to study recreationally important fishes across Ontario's lakes. Our ongoing collaboration with the Harkness Laboratory of Fisheries Research (www.harkness.ca/) has resulted in repeated sampling of fish during all four seasons and over multiple years. Our goal is to help identify the consequences of warmer, wetter winters, anticipated under climate change, for fish and whole lake ecosystem structure and function. We are also helping inform policies around stocking and harvest limits. |
Winter ice fishing on Lake Opeongo, Algonquin Provincial park, Ontario
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Floating village, Tonle Sap Lake Cambodia. photo: Bailey McMeans
Tropical Floodplain Lakes
The Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia supports one of the most productive and diverse inland fisheries in the world, and provides a crucial protein source for millions of people.
This poorly studied system, which undergoes massive physical changes between the wet and dry seasons, is under major threat from dams (see map below) and climate change.
The Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia supports one of the most productive and diverse inland fisheries in the world, and provides a crucial protein source for millions of people.
This poorly studied system, which undergoes massive physical changes between the wet and dry seasons, is under major threat from dams (see map below) and climate change.
Arctic Seas
Arctic seas are among the most seasonally variable ecosystems on the planet. The photos above show the same location, Pangnirtung fjord, Nunavut, Canada, during winter (left) and summer (right). The McMeans lab studies how seasonal fluctuations alter trophic interactions in Arctic food webs.