Effects of exotic invasion and terrestrial DOC on aquatic food web quality, and the body condition and Hg bioaccumulation of sportfish

The project will quantify spatial variation in food web quality associated with round goby / dreissenid mussel invasion and terrestrial dissolved organic carbon to understand how it may mediate the nutritional state (fatty acid content), body size, and Hg contaminant load of sportfish. We will work across existing spatial aquatic gradients in historical inorganic Hg sediment contamination, abundance of exotic round gobies and dreissenid mussels, and terrestrial DOC in the Upper St. Lawrence River. The Upper St. Lawrence River system has an economically-important sportfish industry, and we will provide insight into how the interplay of multiple stressors in this anthropogenically-impacted ecosystem plays out for contaminant loads and fitness of sportfish. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Alison Derry

Student:

Cristina Charette

Partner:

St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

Program: