Kitchell awarded NSF Rapid Response grant

August 24th 2009 Simon Kuran
Awards, Natural & Physical Sciences
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A photo montage looking upstream in 2008. The dam removal took place in phases with a visible stepping down of water levels.
A photo montage looking upstream in 2008. The dam removal took place in phases with a visible stepping down of water levels.

Jim Kitchell, director of the Center for Limnology and a professor in the Department of Zoology, was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant.

This grant builds on a National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service that was awarded to Emily Stanley, associate professor at the Center for Limnology and Martin Doyle at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The grant will allow Kitchell to study ecological changes following the removal of a dam on Big Spring Creek in central Wisconsin.

The Big Spring Creek Crew holding up trophy mottled sculpins which grow upstream of the former dam.
The Big Spring Creek Crew holding up trophy mottled sculpins which grow upstream of the former dam.

Warmwater piscivores - animals that live on eating fish - and competitors were absent in the native cool water fish community upstream of the dam.

Now that fish are able to pass more freely, Kitchell, along with post-doc Brian Weidel and research assistant Steve Powers will evaluate ecosystem responses to changes in temperature, competition and predation.