Brook Trout Ecology
There is a long tradition of research on the ecology of brook trout in lakes of Algonquin Park. This species is regarded by many is one of the iconic symbols of the park and its glacial history. The publication list for Harkness shows many questions on brook trout ecology covered in the history of the lab - and that tradition continues today.
We are focusing on two projects:
1) Acoustic arrays for estimating brook locations in lakes. The purpose of the work is to better understand the availability of brook trout to monitoring gear and to test some hypotheses about habitat selection on daily and longer time scales. The photo is of a 50+ cm male brook trout taken during the spawning season. Where does he live at other times of the year and what habitats are being used at daily and seasonal time-scales?
2) Monitoring methods to assess brook trout abundance with minimal mortality. We are incorporating multi-pass surveys and other analyses to develop a modern approach to population monitoring and estimation.