Category Archives: Research
Lab Hosts More Visiting Scholars from Brazil
In January the Winemiller Aquatic Ecology Lab welcomed two more visiting scientists from Brazil. Marcelo Andrade is a doctoral student from the Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil, and Eduardo Cunha is a doctoral student from the Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Brazil. Marcelo is researching the evolutionary ecology and diversity of fishes in the Amazon and major tributaries with emphasis on piranhas and their relatives (serrasalmid fishes). His major advisor at UFPA is Dr. Tommaso Giarrizzo. Eduardo is interested in theoretical ecology and is studying spatial complexity… Read More →
Authors of Science Journal article strive to save world’s mightiest rivers
Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, s-byrns@tamu.edu COLLEGE STATION – A group of 40 international scientists led by a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences professor says three of the earth’s mightiest rivers are being ravaged in the name of progress. The findings of Dr. Kirk Winemiller, Regents Professor in the department of wildlife and fisheries sciences and Texas A&M AgriLife Research fisheries scientist in College Station, and his colleagues were released in the scientific journal Science. The paper, “Hydropower Expansion in the Amazon, Congo and Mekong – a looming threat… Read More →
Functional Traits, Convergent Evolution, and Periodic Tables of Niches
Dr. Kirk Winemiller and doctoral students Luke Bower and Daniel Fitzgerald together with Dr. Eric Pianka (Denton Cooley Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin) recently published a paper in Ecology Letters entitled “Functional Traits, Convergent Evolution, and Periodic Tables of Niches” in which they explore implications of convergent evolution for current research that seeks to define niche dimensionality and species ordination in functional trait space. The paper also summarizes applications of species ordination for environmental challenges such as restoration ecology and invasive… Read More →
TWRI Mills Scholar Tony Rodger finds high flow events critical for lower Brazos fish
By Leslie Lee Tony Rodger, who graduated earlier this month with a master’s degree from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University, studied minnow species in the lower Brazos River Basin to determine how environmental flows affected early life stage survival. His study concluded that high flow events help maintain the biodiversity of fish within the lower Brazos River. Rodger is a 2014–2015 Mills Scholarship recipient. These scholarships, funded by the W.G. Mills Scholarship Memorial Endowment and administered by the Texas Water Resources Institute, support… Read More →
If you rebuild it, they will come back
Re-establishing environmental flows in Caddo Lake brings back the paddlefish By Sara Carney When visitors travel to Caddo Lake on the Texas-Louisiana border, they may see people canoeing on the blue-green water, navigating between the towering bald cypress trees and the Spanish moss that sweeps down from the branches. They may see fishers catching largemouth bass and families hiking nearby trails. But what visitors might not see is a creature beneath the lake’s surface that is older than the lake itself; in fact, it comes from the oldest… Read More →
Environmental Flows Research highlighted in txH2O
Environmental Flows research was highlighted in the Texas Water Resources Institute’s Summer 2012 edition of txH2O. Running the Rivers Scientists say 2011 drought showed importance of environmental flows regulations Read complete article at http://twri.tamu.edu/publications/txh2o/summer-2012/running-the-rivers/ Determining and maintaining the balance between ecological and human needs has not been easy, and hundreds of stakeholders and scientists have participated in the process. “The Instream Flow Program was my entry point into the Texas water wars,” said Dr. Kirk Winemiller, a Regents Professor in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University…. Read More →