Evaluating the predicted effects of climate change on lake fishes using more than 80 years of lake survey records
Abstract: Historical data from more than 2,000 inland lakes, and across more than 80 years, have allowed us to evaluate the empirical support for several predictions about the impacts of warming on fishes in inland lakes. Using an online citizen science approach, we digitized more than eighty years of historical lake survey records from across the state of Michigan, USA. We have used these newly available data to examine spatial and temporal trends in growth, abundance, and mass mortality events. I will share evidence that space-for-time substitutions can be useful in predicting changes in abundance, that winter fish kills are becoming less common as summer kills become more common, and that several species are shrinking in size, especially as juveniles.
Speaker: Karen Alofs, IGB Guest Scientist and Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
