Mike Spear (@spearmike) header
Mike Spear (@spearmike) profile picture

Mike Spear

@spearmike

Large River Ecologist @INHS @illinois_river | PhD @UWMadison @WiscLimnology | BS @NotreDame @NDScience | freshwater science 🌊, invasive species 🐟, eDNA 🧬

 La Grange Park, IL
Joined March 2010
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20Media
Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)Photo by Mike Spear (@spearmike)
Welcome Rob Mooney to PRI! 🎉 Rob recently joined the @illinois_river team at the @INHSIllinois. Get to know Rob by reading our recent interview with him: loom.ly/h7101jk #PeopleofPRI
A man stands in front of a lake with text, "People of PRI: Rob Mooney."

ALT A man stands in front of a lake with text, "People of PRI: Rob Mooney."

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Crews across federal, state, and academic partners collected thousands of water quality and fish community samples before, during, and after the lock closure - a true multi-agency monitoring effort. The BACI results were clear: turbidity declined when traffic declined
Image from Mike Spear (@spearmike)
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Fish responded, too! When traffic declined, metrics of rheophilic fishes and fishes particularly sensitive to underwater sound increased in 'impact' areas relative to 'pseudo-control' areas. And gizzard shad! Not all life history groups responded, though. Context-dependency!
Image from Mike Spear (@spearmike)
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This study highlights some of those ecological costs to consider when balancing the use of our rivers as significant navigation corridors AND significant ecosystems. Article: doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.… Data: doi.org/10.5066/P9EQZV10
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Come work with me and my awesome team on cool critters #freshwater #macroinvertebrates #LTRM – at Macomb, IL
Illinois Natural History Survey (@INHSillinois) profile pictureIllinois Natural History Survey@INHSillinois9 Apr 2024
We're #hiring: Macroinvertebrate Technicians! 🐌 This is a perfect opportunity for a current undergrad student. 🔗 Apply at loom.ly/beV3Yv4! #riverecology #summerjob #summerfieldtech @illinois_river
A freshwater mollusk in a person's hand

ALT A freshwater mollusk in a person's hand

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I’ve been dreaming of this paper for a decade. One PhD and one postdoc later, here it is! What do ecology and evolution look like in a 20-year freshwater time series? Turns out they blur together. @sarilog @quendi @archaeal @USLTER @NSF @jgi biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
Bacterial ecology and evolution converge on seasonal and decadal scales

Bacterial ecology and evolution converge on seasonal and decadal scales

Ecology and evolution are distinct theories, but the short lifespans and large population sizes of microbes allow evolution to unfold along contemporary ecological time scales. To document this in a...

biorxiv.org
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Sleeper Populations and Climate Change| Sleeper populations of invasive species can exist in low numbers until an environmental change triggers the population to increase. For example, increased water temperature under climate change. Learn more: bit.ly/3FEuZf7
Image from Int'l Conf. AIS (@ICAISorg)
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IRBS is looking to hire a PhD student to help study Shovelnose Sturgeon population demographics on the Rock River. For more info check out the link below! blogs.illinois.edu/view/7426… @INHSillinois @PrairieResInst
Image from Illinois River Biological Station (@illinois_river)
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20 years of microbial sampling, reoccurring seasonal change, and long-term shifts from aquatic species invasions. Thrilled to see this out in @PNASNews 🎉 @quendi @TrexLab @riley_hale8 @JakeDeLake @mcmahonlab @WiscLimnology @UWMadisonCALS @NSF @USLTER pnas.org/eprint/4YR8GPQQIH4P…
Species invasions shift microbial phenology in a two-decade freshwater time series | PNAS

Species invasions shift microbial phenology in a two-decade freshwater time series | PNAS

Invasive species impart abrupt changes on ecosystems, but their impacts on microbial communities are often overlooked. We paired a 20 y freshwater ...

pnas.org
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Looks like #eDNA is #globally #cyclical but the #cycles #differ based on #location, so be #mindful of #season while #sampling! #Day length matters, especially closer to the #poles. #eDNA2023
Image from Clare I M Adams (@Clare_eDNA)
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I am so happy that this paper is out as a preprint (and submitted to journal)! Such a fun experience analysing the long-term @USLTER data by @WiscLimnology, and trying to understand what happened to oxygen after spiny invasion
Robin Rohwer (@RobinRohwer) profile pictureRobin Rohwer@RobinRohwer30 Jan 2023
How did an invasive zooplankton increase lake anoxia? My latest, co-first authored with @hydrobert (spoilers in the thread!) @hildug @pchanson1 @JakeRWalsh @JakeDeLake @WiscLimnology @USLTER #phenology biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following species invasion of a eutrophic lake

The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following species invasion of a eutrophic lake

Species invasions can disrupt aquatic ecosystems by re-wiring food webs. A trophic cascade triggered by the invasion of the predatory zooplankter spiny water flea (Bythotrephes cederströmii) resulted...

biorxiv.org
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How did an invasive zooplankton increase lake anoxia? My latest, co-first authored with @hydrobert (spoilers in the thread!) @hildug @pchanson1 @JakeRWalsh @JakeDeLake @WiscLimnology @USLTER #phenology biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following species invasion of a eutrophic lake

The aftermath of a trophic cascade: Increased anoxia following species invasion of a eutrophic lake

Species invasions can disrupt aquatic ecosystems by re-wiring food webs. A trophic cascade triggered by the invasion of the predatory zooplankter spiny water flea (Bythotrephes cederströmii) resulted...

biorxiv.org
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🐟 Apply by Jan. 31! 🐟 The #INHS @illinois_river in Havana, IL is #hiring 2 aquatic/#fisheries field techs to help collect standardized long-term river monitoring data! #FishyFriday #fishsci For details ➡️ bit.ly/3WxMAf7 🌊 @LamerJim @iBioIllinois @IllinoisNRES
Image from Illinois Natural History Survey (@INHSillinois)
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Great paper by @Matthew_P_Adams et al in @Ecology_Letters who assessed pop models w/ time series: "we do not need to wait for models to produce well-constrained predictions before we start using them to inform decisions" 🤩🤯 doi.org/10.1111/ele.13465 🗞️#244-2022
cover page of paper "Informing management decisions for ecological networks, using dynamic models calibrated to noisy time-series data"

ALT cover page of paper "Informing management decisions for ecological networks, using dynamic models calibrated to noisy time-series data"

figure 1, sorry couldn't copy and paste the legend for this figure :-(

ALT figure 1, sorry couldn't copy and paste the legend for this figure :-(

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We are seeking two technicians to help with aquatic macroinvertebrate research on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers! This position will be 40 hours per week and will be based in Macomb, Illinois. Apply by 3/15 ➡️ blogs.illinois.edu/view/7426… @INHSillinois @PrairieResInst
Image from Illinois River Biological Station (@illinois_river)
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JOB ALERT! This is a really good one. Permanent quantitative ecologist at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Goal: apply advanced quantitative methods to improve understanding of marine ecosystems in Alaska with an emphasis on salmon. Closes 1/23. bit.ly/3Xjn7qd
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