Anna Senecal, a former Master’s student in the Wyoming Coop Unit, recently published her research in Ecosphere. Her co-authors were Dr. Annika Walters, current assistant unit leader for fisheries, and Dr. Wayne Hubert, former unit leader for fisheries. Her article is based on data she obtained while performing research for her Master’s Thesis.
In the article, titled “Historical data reveal fish assemblage shifts in an unregulated prairie river,” Senecal discusses fish assemblage patterns in Wyoming’s Powder River. Her research involved comparing historic fish assemblage (1964-1980) with contemporary assemblage (1994, 2007-2008). She suggests that while the Powder River is one of the last remaining unregulated prairie river systems, the fish assemblage has been altered as a result of cumulative landscape level changes. Key changes include increased relative abundance of sand shiner and plains killifish and decreased abundance of sturgeon chub.
Senecal was a student under Dr. Hubert and graduated in 2009. She now works in Jackson, WY as a Wyoming Game & Fish aquatic habitat biologist.
Senecal’s article is available in the December 2015 (Volume 6, Issue 12) issue of Ecosphere and is open access http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/ES14-00361.1/full. Ecosphere is published by the Ecological Society of America and includes articles from various disciplines within ecology.