The pulse of Lake Ontario: Evolution of an Ecosystem Approach

Lars Rudstam is a professor in fisheries and aquatic sciences in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University, and the director of the Cornell Biological Field Station. His research is at the interface between basic and applied science with special interest in food web dynamics and the interactions between fisheries management and ecosystem processes. He is also interested in spatial and temporal patterns of animal distributions and what causes those patterns, partly because heterogeneity in the different organisms’ response to space and time affect food webs and ecosystem dynamics. Currently, he works with lower trophic levels and fisheries across the Great Lakes, from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario, with long-term analysis of ecosystem processes in Oneida Lake, and with comparative analyses of aquatic ecosystems across the globe. He also teaches fish ecology and consults with managers, mostly in New York and Canada, as part of technical committees.