Joseph Zydlewski
Professor, Wildlife, Fisheries, & Conservation Biology
Assistant Unit Leader, USGS Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

Dams affect fish species in some obvious ways.  These effects, and their proposed solutions, are often simplifications of complex systems that ignore more subtle effects.  This talk will explore six ways in which dams can influence fish and fisheries, drawing on the Penobscot River impoundment and  modifications as a case study.

Joe Zydlewski received his BS in Chemistry and Biology at Bates College and PhD from the University of Massachusetts studying the physiological ecology of the American shad. Later, with the US Fish and Wildlife Service Columbia River Fisheries Program Office he studied the migratory behavior of coastal cutthroat trout. He joined the USGS Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in 2004 as Assistant Unit Leader, a federal position that is embedded in the University of Maine. He is a Professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology and cooperating faculty in the School of Biology and Ecology and the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, Orono. Joe’s work centers on the study of fish movements and migrations and he has effectively addressed both basic and complex management questions in innovative ways. Recent work has included collaboration in the NSF “Future of Dams” project that explores the dynamics of decision at the interface of policy and science.