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Morphometric Evaluation Of The Whitefish Complex In Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho, Alan Ward

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Whitefish populations around the world have long been difficult to categorize taxonomically. The whitefish of Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho are no exception. There are three recognized species of Prosopium that are endemic to the lake. Two of these species, Prosopium spilonotus and Prosopium abyssicota, have previously been indistinguishable outside of spawning times. Previous studies have proposed additional taxa within P. spi/onotus to further complicate the identification among these taxa.

Morphological characteristics were quantified on wild whitefish from Bear Lake, as well as from progeny reared in the laboratory from the wild adult fish. The purported taxa were separated in the field …

Ontogenetic Habitat Shifts Of Juvenile Bear Lake Sculpin, J. Ruzycki, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Bear lake sculpin Cottus extensus exhibit ontogenetic habitat shifts during their initial year of life. Distribution and habitat switching was measured with bimonthly bottom-trawl surveys repeated throughout the summer. Patterns of daily growth increments on otoliths were used to measure the history of habitat residence, individual size at the time of the habitat switch, and habitat-specific growth rates. Laboratory experiments and known-age fish confirmed daily increment formation of otoliths. After dispersing during an initial pelagic larval stage, postlarval juveniles settled in both the warm, food-rich littoral zone and the cold, unproductive profundal zone. During summer, initial profundal-zone inhabitants underwent a …

Aspects Of The Feeding Ecology Of The Bonneville Cisco Of Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho, David C. Lentz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bonneville cisco (Prospium gemmiferum), a small planktivorous whitefish, is an important part of the distinctive fish community of Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho. The Bonneville cisco plays a key role in the trophic structure by converting zooplankton to fish biomass and providing a major forage source for cutthroat and lake trout. Aspects of cisco feeding ecology studied include characterization of the zooplankton community composition and dynamics and cisco feeding habits and prey selection.

Composition and seasonal dynamics of the zooplankton community were determined for a fifteen month period during 1981-1982. The community was dominated by a calanoid copepod, Epischura …

An Ecological Study Of The Bear Lake Littoral Zone, Utah-Idaho, Gar W. Workman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the past, several projects have been conducted at Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho, by the Utah State University through the Wildlife Resources Department, in conjunction with the Utah and Idaho fish and game departments, the Fish and Wildlife Service , and the National Science Foundation. These projects have dealt primarily with limnology, limnological techniques, fish life histories, fish movements, and bottom fauna in the pelagic and benthic areas of the lake. Subsequently, a littoral zone project was set up to study some of the ecological aspects of the shallow waters of Bear Lake, and some of the influences that this area …

Bear Lake And Its Future, William F. Sigler

Faculty Honor Lectures

Even in such a wide-ranging and eternally changing field as biology, a few statements about certain aspects can be made with a minimum likelihood of their being refuted. In this class are the following: No two lakes are identical. Any given lake is simultaneously many things to many people. A lake is never static. The influence of a lake reaches far beyond its shores.

Bear Lake, Utah-Idaho, can be used to good advantage to exemplify the truth of these statements. It defies meaningful comparison with other lakes unless a mass of detailed statistics is employed. To the fisherman and water …