Development of a Great Lakes Bioenergetics, Physiology, and Behavior Laboratory

The Great Lakes Center of Buffalo State College requests funds to develop the laboratoryinstNmentation for experiments on the bioenergetics, physiology and behavior of freshwater fish and plankton. The experiments conducted with these instNments will be coupled to our existing modeling programs in fish bioenergetics, spatial modeling of habitat quality, 3-D foraging models and individual-based models of fish populations and ecosystems. The new laboratory equipment will provide a tight coupling and feedback between laboratory experimentation and model development that will produce an integrated empirical and theoretical approach to studying freshwater ecosystems. The core equipment enhancement requested in this proposal is a computer controlled water quality control system for bioenergetics, behavior and physiology experiments and for culturing and maintenance of fish and plankton in the laboratory. The Great Lakes Center of Buffalo State College has the only modern Aquatic Research Laboratory (opened 1994) located on the lower Great Lakes (ol Lake Erie) capable of supporting experimental aquatic research with lake water. The Aquatic Research Laboratory is a new 7,000+ sq. ft. facility equipped with fish and zooplankton culture rooms, experimental laboratories with flow-through water systems (well water and lake water), a workshop, classroom, biological sorting center and direct access to Lake Erie. Experimental work at the Aquatic Research Laboratory has suffered from an inability to maintain water temperature and water quality at levels required for bioenergetics, behavioral and physiological experiments. Equipment for laboratory experimental facilities is requested to collect detailed, speciesspecific data required for studies of freshwater ecosystems and for the associated modeling efforts. The equipment will provide facilities needed for experiments on metabolic rates, consumption rates, predator-prey interactions, reactive distances, and physiological responses to stress in both fish and plankton. These data will provides full sets of parameter values for species-specific models (bioenergetics, foraging, etc.) and eliminate the need to 'borrow' data from unrelated species in model development. In addition, the data will allow for measures of fish and plankton physiological responses to changes in environmental conditions that may occur naturally or result form anthropogenic effects on the ecosystem. The instrumentation we have requested will add to the Great Lakes Center's Aquatic Research Laboratory by enhancing our training of students (undergraduate and graduate) and researchers (postdoctoral and visiting research scientists). Research training programs will benefit by adding a laboratory experimentation component to our already strong field and modeling programs. The Great Lakes Center has recently begun the only Graduate Program in Great Lakes Environmental Sciences in the country, and the requested laboratory facility would be a fertile training ground for students enrolled in this program. In 1995 the Great Lakes Center hosted visiting scientists from Canada, Israel, and other institutions within New York to train them on the techniques we have developed for integrating our field sampling and spatial modeling programs. The laboratory instrumentation will provide a sorely needed component to the Great Lakes Center Aquatic Research Laboratory for training and research on freshwater ecosystems.