Teaching and research in evolutionary and behavioral ecology; resource control and reproductive success in vertebrates, including humans; integration of evolutionary theory and resource management; resources and reproductive variance; reproductive and resource tradeoffs for modern women.

I am a Professor of Natural Resources, as well as Director of the Michigan Sea Grant Program, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. My research focuses on aquatic animals and their interactions with the environment. This is expressed in two major research areas: sustainable aquaculture and its role in feeding the world, and the ecology of natural fish populations, particularly in the Great Lakes region. As aquaculture is the most important means of producing seafood today, its environmental impacts are important, and we need to understand and remediate them in order to more sustainably produce aquaculture crops. My research focuses on the interaction between aquaculture practices and environmental impacts and seeks to find solutions for more sustainable production in the future. Secondly, human impacts on natural systems have resulted in dramatic declines in many fish species throughout the world, particularly in the Great Lakes region. My research focus on fish ecology is on the management, restoration, and rehabilitation of wild populations that have been inevitably influenced by human disturbance. My teaching is in Aquatic Sciences, in particular, courses in Ecology of Fishes and Sustainable Aquaculture. In addition, I supervise research of a large number of graduate students in Aquatic Sciences.

I investigate processes at the ecosystem level using statistical modelling. My main interest in research is to understand ecological processes and population dynamics of aquatic organisms at the ecosystem level, in particular those aspects that are relevant to resource management. Recently I have been investigating spatial and temporal scales needed to study the spatial distribution of fish abundance and obtain indices of abundance of fish populations in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Since fish, as other aquatic organisms, cannot be directly observed large scale population studies must rely on analysis of data from scientific surveys or commercial operations. The analysis of this information requires specialized statistical modeling. Currently my focus is in the Great Lakes.