The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity for research to study overwinter hydrodynamics on Lake Erie coldwater fish spawning reefs.

Loss of winter presents a challenge for management of coldwater fishes. Ice cover has declined in recent decades in the Great Lakes, which is expected to continue based on existing climate projections. Ice cover has been linked to reproductive success for coldwater fishes, such as fishes from the genus Coregonus. Several factors have been proposed as potential mechanisms for ice cover-recruitment linkages, including wind-driven currents displacing early life stages from nursery habitats and causing burying of early life stages with fine sediments. The hypothesis is that ice cover protects the water’s surface from wind and creates a more stable hydrodynamic environment. However, the hydrodynamics on spawning reefs have not been measured under conditions of ice cover to estimate the conditions experienced by coldwater fish early life stages.