Advanced search

Jereme Gaeta

University of Wisconsin
118 Center for Limnology
680 North Park Street
Madison, WI 53706
jgaeta@wisc.edu
(608) 262-3087
http://limnology.wisc.edu/personnel/gaeta/Jereme_Gaeta/Home.html

Research Projects

Biocomplexity Project

Surprises - large, unexpected changes from apparently small causes -- are common in systems of people and nature. Are these surprises a consequence of the complexity or nonlinearity of natural-social systems? Or can they be explained by simpler processes? Our research addresses this question for systems composed of lakes, their shoreline (riparian) vegetation and land use, and social and economic organizations of lake users. We will study the self-organization of lake users and associated characteristics of shoreline and lake ecosystems. We will determine whether thresholds in riparian organization set the stage for an important class of surprises - collapses of economically important game fish stocks. We will test the possibility that nonlinear dynamics can be used to design manipulations that remove invading crayfish from a lake. If successful, our experiment will cause a self-sustaining removal of an invasive species - a path-breaking ecological restoration.

Shoreline development, drought, and littoral fish habitat

Coarse woody habitat (CWH) is an important littoral zone structure serving as spawning structure, fish refugia, and a source of macroinvertebrate prey. However, CWH density is inversely correlated with lakeshore residential development due to humans directly removing wood from lake littoral zones and clear cutting riparian zones, thus eliminating future CWH additions. Additionally, current drought conditions, predicted by climate change models to persist and possibly increase over the next few decades, have lowered lake levels in Wisconsin’s Northern Highland Lake District leaving CWH high and dry on lake shorelines, eliminating this source of habitat from lake littoral zones even in undeveloped lakes. Yet, little is known about how this vulnerable littoral structure impacts fish community and population dynamics.

Crystal Lake Thermal Manipulation to Eradicate Invasive Rainbow Smelt

Rainbow smelt are an invasive fish species that was first detected in the Laurentian Great Lakes in the 1920’s and have since spread to numerous inland lakes. As of 2005, rainbow smelt have invaded 24 inland Wisconsin lakes and have the potential to spread to many more. In Wisconsin’s Northern Highland Lake District, rainbow smelt have been associated with several negative impacts on lake food webs.  For instance, rainbow smelt have been associated with shifts in zooplankton community structure, reductions in yellow perch densities, extirpation of ...

Crystal Lake Mixing

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are conducting a whole-lake mixing experiment on Crystal Lake (Vilas County, WI) to eradicate an invasive fish from the lake. Rainbow smelt invaded Crystal Lake in the early 1980s, and a sharp decline in native yellow perch populations followed shortly thereafter. To specifically target this invasive for removal from the lake, researchers are taking advantage of the smelt's need for cold water habitat in a lake with no other cold water fishes. The Crystal Lake Mixing scientists will experimentally mix the lake to remove this cold water habitat, stressing the rainbow smelt beyond the limits of survival.

more

Recent Publications

Gaeta JW, Guarascio MJ, Sass GG, Carpenter SR.  2011.  Lakeshore residential development and growth of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides): a cross-lakes comparison. Ecology of Freshwater Fish . 20:92-101.
Gaeta JW.  2009.  Lakeshore residential development and growth of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides): a cross-lakes comparison.. Limnology and Marine Science. M.S.:v,45.
more

Selected Datasets

Eradication via destratification: whole-lake mixing to selectively remove rainbow smelt, a cold-water invasive species.
Biocomplexity: Coordinated Field Studies: Large Mouth Bass Growth
Biocomplexity; Coordinated Field Studies: Littoral Plots
Biocomplexity; Coordinated Field Studies: Coarse Woody Habitat Data
more