Expert In
Bio/Research
Rudstam considers his research to be at the interface between basic and applied science. His overall research goals concern food web dynamics and the interactions between fisheries management and ecosystem processes. Food webs are composed of organisms that operate at different spatial and tempor...
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Bio/Research
Rudstam considers his research to be at the interface between basic and applied science. His overall research goals concern food web dynamics and the interactions between fisheries management and ecosystem processes. Food webs are composed of organisms that operate at different spatial and temporal scales. He wants to understand how this heterogeneity in different organisms’ response to space and time affect food web dynamics in aquatic systems. Currently, he addresses the spatial aspect using acoustic surveys and spatial models; he addresses the temporal aspect by analyzing the Oneida long-term data sets. He also works with more applied problems associated with fisheries management in New York State and elsewhere. Examples include evaluation of alewife management through predator stocking, standardization of acoustics methods across the Great Lakes basin, and effects of cormorant predation on a walleye-perch predator-prey system. This combination of basic and applied science is stimulating to him. Geographically, most of his research activities are now in New York State and concentrated to Oneida Lake and the Laurentian Great Lakes (Ontario, and Erie), although he occasionally also works in other systems (for example the Baltic Sea and Lake Baikal). He plans on continuing his research on long-term dynamics of the fish populations in Oneida Lake and associated mechanistic investigations. In addition, he plans on pursuing one or two other major projects (such as his recent Sea Grant funded projects in Lakes Ontario and Champlain). Possible research projects include the use of Finger Lakes as model ecosystems to understand food web interactions in deep lakes, importance of edges of distributions to predator-prey interactions in pelagic systems, and the role of invertebrate predators in aquatic food webs. His current effort assignment is 80% research and 20% teaching. He will continue teaching Fish Ecology, Conservation and Management with Jackson in the spring semester, continue involvement with undergraduate interns and thesis students and continue mentoring graduate students. This includes organizing seminar courses. He also plans to stay involved with extension activities, particularly as related to advising DEC fisheries managers and continuing education of professionals through workshops, web site (currently developing acoustics unpacked), etc.
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