Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Lakes Northern Forests Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU Partner for research on “Exploring past and present spawning habitats for native fishes in the Great Lakes to inform restoration and conservation.” Coregonines (the whitefishes and ciscoes) are the primary focus of this research. Coregonine populations have generally declined over the past century throughout the Great Lakes, with some species (or forms) now considered extirpated, and some considered extinct. A science-based approach for conserving and/or restoring these culturally, ecologically, and economically important fishes has been developed by USGS alongside Tribal, First Nations, state, provincial, and university partners. The plan is referred to as the Coregonine Restoration Framework, herein abbreviated the CRF, and the planning phase of the CRF is currently underway. A primary component of the CRF is to conduct a gap analysis to compare historical and contemporary populations and habitats. This work involves collecting and analyzing historical and contemporary data, developing predictive models to map areas of coregonine occurrence and spawning locations, and comparisons of historical and contemporary maps and data to inform managers about optimal locations to focus restoration and/or conservation efforts.  Aim to create a significant partnership between USGS and CESU researchers to address questions of mutual interest, such as how to use modeling and mapping techniques to (1) learn where certain coregonine species once occurred, (2) learn where they occur now, and (3) compare and delineate areas where conservation and restoration activities can occur based on managers’ needs (i.e., areas where spawning habitat exists yet coregonines are now gone, areas where a species has persisted over the decades and still occurs, areas where a species did not historically occur but has since been found). The outcomes of this research are of interest to scientists and resource managers of federal, state, Indigenous, and provincial agencies who are charged with ensuring sustainable fishery resources.