Environmental Science & Ecology Professor Receives $185k Grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Dr. Jacques Rinchard from the Department of Environmental Science and Ecology and his collaborators at the University of Vermont and the University of Southern California, received a two-year research grant for $185,586 from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to investigate whether lake trout eggs and free embryos are able to acquire thiamine during development in the wild.
Thiamine deficiency complex (TDC) is a reproductive disorder affecting the health and recruitment of lake trout in the Great Lakes region. The purpose of this project is to establish whether TDC can be mitigated by absorption of free thiamine by eggs and consumption of thiamine-rich prey by alevins. Two hypothesis will be tested: (1) lake trout eggs can acquire dissolved thiamine from ambient water during overwinter incubation and (2) access to natural food increases thiamine in wild alevins and reduces their incidence of TDC.
The grant will support a graduate student at SUNY Brockport and will also involve a former graduate student, Matt Futia, who is currently a PhD student at the University of Vermont.
The grant will be administered by The Research Foundation for SUNY at SUNY Brockport.