Department of Zoology, University of Otago, New Zealand

Associate Professor Gerry Closs

Email gerry.closs@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

Publications:

Associate Professor Closs' publications are available here

Teaching:

• Animal diversity
• Freshwater ecology
• Freshwater fish ecology

Research Interests:

• Impacts of introduced fish species
• Ecology of native freshwater fish
• Movement & activity in freshwater fish
• Habitat selection in freshwater fish
• Food webs in lakes and streams
• Analysis of otolith microstructure & chemistry
• Using trace element analysis to track migration

Current Projects:

• Ecology of small estuaries
• Population dynamics of migratory and resident brown trout (Salmo trutta)
• Habitat use and behaviour of native fish species in South Island coastal streams
• Littoral food webs in South Island lakes
• Recruitment dynamics of diadromous freshwater fish

Current Ph.D Students

• Beate Bierschenk - Ecology of mysid shrimp in Otago estuaries
• Leonie Kucholl - Factors determining juvenile trout abundance and migration
• Nicholas Dunn - Influence of hydrologic regime on local adaptation within Galaxiidae
• Andy Hicks - Facultative diadromy in New Zealand fish
• Adrian Lill - Ecology of small intermittently open Otago estuaries
• Abbas Akbaripasand - Does habitat structure or food supply control banded kokopu abundance?

Past Ph.D students

• Shannan Crow - Evolutionary ecology of galaxiid fish
• Tobias Bickel - Littoral food webs and community dynamics in Lake Dunstan
• Esben Kristensen - Factors influencing the population dynamics of brown trout
• Eric Hansen - Factors influencing movement in Giant Kokopu (Galaxias argenteus)
• Stephen Rate - Tussock / insect associations in a remnant upland tussock grassland
• Dale McNeil - The role of hypoxia in determining fish distribution on the Ovens River floodplain
• Ruth Goldsmith - Competitive and predatory interactions between common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) and European perch (Perca fluviatilis)
• Heather Rhodes - Stream management on farms in Otago and Southland
• Rick Stoffels - Littoral food webs and trophic dynamics of Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri
• Bruno David - Habitat use and behaviour of giant kokopu (Galaxias argenteus)
• Cathy Rufaut - Tussock / insect associations in a New Zealand tussock grassland
• Patrick Driver - Distribution and impact of carp (Cyprinus carpio) in the Murray-Darling river system
• Michael Shirley - Fish community dynamics in five Murray River billabongs
• Stephen Balcombe - Habitat and patch selection by carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris sp.) in littoral macrophyte beds
• Syarifuddin - The role of surface complexity and predation in determining invertebrate communities on submersed logs in billabong
• Lor-wai Tan - Taxonomy and ecology of testate amoeba in billabong macrophyte beds.

Recent M.Sc. / Honours Projects

Current and recent research projects include:

• Behaviour of banded kokopu
• Drifting invertebrates, food supply & stream fish dynamics
• Ecology of Kahru Longjaw Galaxias
• Population dynamics & movement of migratory and resident brown trout
• Ecology of Dune Lakes Galaxias
• Distribution and life history of estuarine mysids
• Habitat use of native freshwater fish
• Predator detection and avoidance in fish
• Efficiency of spotlighting vrs. electrofishing for estimating fish abundance
• Abundance and aging of eels
• Effects of perch removal on pond communities

Ed Waite holds an impressive brown trout (M.Sc. project on trout migration)