Ecology section at the Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center Trying to avoid eating midges as Lake Myvatn, Iceland Ben Letcher (CV) Contact Info: Ben Letcher bletcher@forwild.umass.edu Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, USGS/BRD PO Box 796 Turners Falls, MA 01376 (413) 772-9870 - cell (413) 863-3803 - Office Title: Section Leader Education B.S. Trinity college, Biology, 1985 M.S. University of Rhode Island, Ocenaography, 1990 Ph.D. North Caorlina State University, Zoology, 1994 Postdoctoral SUNY Stony Brook, 1994 Research Interests I am interested in how individual variation gets ramped up to population dynamics and to evolutionary processes. Does individual variation matter or does it get averaged out once it gets scaled up to population levels or to evolutionary timescales? Small streams represent an excellent system to address these questions. Since 1997, we have been conducting long-term studies with individually-tagged stream salmonids to explore spatial and temporal variation in growth, survival, movement, reproductive success and selection. Combining individual tagging studies with pedigree reconstruction, I am also excited about the possibility of estimating lifetime fitness of brook and brown trout in the wild. Publications   Back to Top Back to Ecology Home