West Virginia Cooperative Research Unit
The West Virginia Unit's research program is focused on environmental impacts at the species and ecosystem levels. Wildlife research projects focus on the effects of anthropogenic disturbances, particularly timber harvesting and energy extraction, on wildlife populations and their habitats. Fisheries research projects focus on contaminants, brook trout restoration and systematics and ecology of West Virginia fishes.
Active Projects:
Allegheny Woodrat: Identifying Strategies to Conserve a Declining Species
Hypotheses regarding the decline of this species focus on food resources (forest conditions), disease, and habitat isolation. We propose to use datasets from throughout the range of the species to test predictions from these hypotheses and to identify risk factors. This analysis using existing datasets will help quantify a structured decision analysis that can be used to guide habitat management or population restoration actions.
Cheat Lake Biomonitoring Study
The study includes the following nine research tasks:
Fish biomonitoring downstream of Cheat Lake; Benthic macroinvertebrate resource biomonitoring downstream of Cheat Lake; Water quality biomonitoring downstream of Cheat Lake; Fish biomonitoring of Cheat Lake and Cheat embayments; Walleye population monitoring and stock assessment; Monitoring of adult walleye movement; Physical and chemical water quality characteristics of Cheat Lake; Aquatic vegetation mapping of Cheat Lake; Create a bathymetric map of Cheat Lake
Migration of silver phase and yellow phase American eels in relation to hydroelectric dams on the Shenadoah River
This study examines the upstream migration of eels in relation to eel specific fishways on dams of the Shenandoah River, and downstream migration of adult eels in relation to mortality caused by hydroelectric turbines.
Find more Active and Completed Projects here.
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