Teaching includes courses in fish ecology and fisheries science. Recent research includes exotic species impacts on aquatic food webs and predator-prey dynamics; understanding environmental factors influencing fish spawning, growth and survival; consequences of dam removal or altering hydropower operations for fish habitat and production; use of GIS to classify and map Great Lakes fish habitats; use of hydrodynamic circulation models and satellite imagery to understand effects of climate variability on advection and survival of fish eggs and larvae.

Awards and Grants:
Grants: 'Classification and Analysis of Great Lakes Fisheries Habitats', funded by Michigan DNR. 'A GIS for Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat', funded by USFWS. 'Fish Recruitment at the Interface of the Great Lakes and their Watersheds (An Addendum to enhance current projects of the Muskegon River Initiative)', funded by Great Lakes Fisheries Trust. 'Development of Environmental Objectives for Lake Michigan', funded by Great Lakes Fishery Commission. ' Impacts of exotic species and nutrient decline on fish community structure and food web linkages in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron', funded by Michigan Sea Grant.

Research Interests:
Fish Population Dynamics, Larval Fish Ecology, Aquatic Habitats, Fisheries Science, Fisheries Management.

Current/Recent Research:

• Development of a GIS for Great Lakes Aquatic Habitats, Funded by Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Fisheries Recruitment at the interface of watershed and Great Lakes, Funded by Great Lakes Fisheries Trust.
• Dynamics of Alewife Recruitment Variability in Lake Michigan, Funded by Great Lakes Fisheries Trust.

Teaching Interests:
Fish Ecology, Fisheries Conservation and Management

Current/Recent Teaching:
Ecology of Fishes (ENVIRON/NRE 409, EEB 487); Intro to Fisheries Science (ENVIRON/NRE 460)

Selected Publications:

• Hook, T.O., E.S. Rutherford, G.S. Carter, and D.M. Mason. In press. Hatch dates, growth, survival and over-winter mortality of age-0 alewives in Lake Michigan: Implications for habitat-specific recruitment success. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.
• Adlerstein, S.A., E.S. Rutherford, J.A. Clevenger, J.E. Johnson, D.F. Clapp, and A.P. Woldt. In press. Lake Trout Movements in US Waters of Lake Huron Interpreted from Coded Wire Tag Recoveries in Recreational Fisheries. Journal of Great Lakes Research 33:186-201.
• Godby, N.A., Jr., E.S. Rutherford, and D.M. Mason. 2007. Diet, consumption, growth, survival, and production of juvenile steelhead in a Lake Michigan tributary. North American Journal of Fisheries Management Vol. 27:578-592.
• Wang, H-Y, E.S. Rutherford, H.A. Cook, D.W. Einhouse, R.C. Haas, T.B. Johnson, R. Kenyon, B. Locke, M.W. Turner. 2007. Movement of Walleye in Lakes Erie and St. Clair Inferred from Tag Return and Fisheries Data. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society Vol. 136:539-551.
• Hook, T.O., M.J. McCormick, E.S. Rutherford, D.M. Mason and G.S. Carter. 2006. Short-term water mass movements in Lake Michigan: implications for larval fish transport. Journal of Great Lakes Research 32:728-737.
• Creque, S.M., E.S. Rutherford and T.G. Zorn. 2005. Use of GIS-derived landscape-scale habitat features to explain spatial patterns of fish density in Michigan Rivers. North Ameican Journal of Fisheries Management. 25(4):1411-1425.
• Dufour, E., W.P. Patterson, T.O. Híƒ ¶íƒ ¶k, and E.S. Rutherford. 2005. Early life history of Lake Michigan alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) inferred from intra-otolith stable isotope ratios. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 62(10):2362-2370.
• Madenjian, C.P., Hook, T.O., Rutherford, E.S., Mason, D.M., Croley, T. II, Szalai, E.S., Bence, J.R. Recruitment Variability of Alewives in Lake Michigan. 2005. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 134(1):218-230.
• Hook, T.O., Rutherford, E.S., Brines, S.J., Mason, D.M., Schwab, D.J., and McCormick, M.J., Fleischer, G.W., DeSorcie, T.J., and Sprules, W.G. 2003. Spatially explicit measures of production of young alewives in Lake Michigan: Linkage between essential fish habitat and recruitment. Estuaries 26(1):21-29.
• Hook, T.O., Rutherford, E.S., Brines, S.J., Geddes, C.A., Mason, D.M., Schwab, D.J., and Fleischer, G.W. In Review. Development of landscape scale measures of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) bioenergetic growth rate potential in Lake Michigan and comparison with catch rates. Journal of Great Lakes Research.
• Godby, N.A., Jr., Rutherford, E.S., and Mason, D.M.. In Press. Diet, growth and production of juvenile steelhead in a Lake Michigan tributary. North American Journal of Fisheries Management.
• Rutherford, E.S., K.A. Rose, J.L. Forney, E.L. Mills, C.M. Mayer and L.G. Rudstam. 1999. Individual-based model simulations of a zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) induced energy shunt on walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) populations in Oneida Lake, NY. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56:2168-2160.
• Rose, K.A., E.S. Rutherford, J.L. Forney, E.L. Mills, and D. SinghDermott. 1999. Individual-based model of yellow perch and walleye populations in Oneida Lake, New York. Ecological Monographs 69:127-154.
• Rutherford, E.S., E.D. Houde, and R.M. Nyman. 1997. Relationship of larval-stage growth and mortality to recruitment of striped bass, Morone saxatilis, in Chesapeake Bay. Estuaries 20(1):174-198.
• Rutherford, E.S., and E.D. Houde. 1995. The influence of temperature on cohort-specific growth, survival and recruitment of larval striped bass, Morone saxatilis, in Chesapeake Bay. Fishery Bulletin 93:315-332.
• Rutherford, E. S., K.A. Rose, and J.H. Cowan, Jr. 2003. Evaluation of the Shepherd and Cushing (1980) model of density-dependent survival: a case study using striped bass (Morone saxatilis) larvae in the Potomac River, Maryland, USA. ICES Journal of Marine Science 60:1275-1287.
• Bartron, M.L., Swank, D.R., Rutherford, E.S., and Scribner, K.T. In Press. Methodological bias in estimates of strain composition and straying rates of hatchery-produced steelhead in Lake Michigan tributaries. North American Journal of Fisheries Management.
• Beletsky, D., Schwab, D., Mason, D., Rutherford, E., McCormick, M., Vanderploeg, H., and Janssen, J. 2003. Modeling the transport of larval yellow perch in Lake Michigan. Proceedings: Estuarine and Coastal Modeling, 8th International Conference, San Francisco.
• Hook, T., Rutherford, E.S., Brines, S.J., Schwab, D., and McCormick, M.J. 2004. Relationships between surface water temperature and steelhead distributions in Lake Michigan. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 24:211-221.
• Horne, B.D., Rutherford, E.S., and Wehrly, K.W. 2004. Simulating effects of hydro-dam alteration on thermal regime and wild steelhead recruitment in the Manistee River, Michigan. River Research and Applications 20:185-203.
• Rutherford, E.S., J.T. Tilmant, E.B. Thue and T.W. Schmidt. 1989. Fishery harvest and population dynamics of spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, in Florida Bay. Bulletin of Marine Science 44:108-125.
• Cowan, J.H., Jr., K.A. Rose, E.S. Rutherford and E.D. Houde. 1993. Individual-based model of young-of-the-year striped bass population dynamics. II. Factors affecting recruitment in the Potomac River, Maryland. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 122: 439-458.
• Houde, E.D., and E.S. Rutherford. 1993. Recent trends in estuarine fisheries: prediction of fish production and yield. Estuaries 16:161-176.
• Rose, K.A., J.A. Tyler, D. Singh Dermott, and E.S. Rutherford. 1996. Multispecies modeling of fish populations. pp. 194-222. In: B. A. Megrey and E. Moksness [eds.], Computers in Fisheries Research. Chapman and Hall, London.
• Woldt, A.P., and Rutherford, E.S. 2002. Production of juvenile steelhead in two central Lake Michigan tributaries. Michigan Dept. Nat. Res., Fish. Div. Research Report No. 2060, Ann Arbor.