Kurt D. Fausch

http://www.cnr.colostate.edu/~kurtf/stream.jpghttp://www.cnr.colostate.edu/~kurtf/group.jpgProfessor

Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, and
Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
Office: (970) 491-6457 FAX: (970) 491-5091
Email: kurtf@warnercnr.colostate.edu

 

Education

B.S. Zoology, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, MN, 1976
M.S. Fisheries Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 1978
Ph.D. Fisheries Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 1981

 

 

Honors

First International Fisheries Science Prize - World Council of Fisheries Societies, World Fisheries Congress, Yokohama, Japan - October 2008

U.S. Forest Service Rise-to-the-Future National Award for Research Achievement - D. Peterson, K. Fausch, B. Rieman, J. Dunham, M. Young - October 2008

University of Minnesota-Duluth, Academy of Science and Engineering - Distinguished Alumnus for 2009 - October 2009

Michigan State University - College of Agriculture and Natural Resources - Outstanding Alumnus for 2010 -  March 2010

Award of Excellence.  Colorado-Wyoming Chapter of the American Fisheries Society - March 2010

Award of Excellence.  Western Division of the American Fisheries Society - April 2010

ISI Highly Cited Researcher - Plant and Animal Science Category - April 2010

Professional Affiliations

American Fisheries Society
Introduced Species Section, International Fisheries Section, Colorado-Wyoming Chapter
Ecological Society of America
Aquatic Ecology Section
American Institute of Biological Sciences, The Ichthyological Society of Japan (Editorial Advisory Board), North American Benthological Society, Fisheries Society of the British Isles  


Research Interests

Research in my laboratory focuses on the ecology and management of streams and stream fishes.  My students and collaborators and I are especially interested in the interaction of stream fishes with their habitat at different spatial and temporal scales. We have been involved in research on interspecific competition among salmonids in Rocky Mountain streams; invasions by nonnative salmonids and their effects on stream and riparian food webs; recruitment bottlenecks and climate change that hamper conservation of native cutthroat trout in Colorado; effects of agricultural pumping on habitats that support rare fishes in Great Plains streams; and effects of livestock grazing on terrestrial invertebrate subsidies that sustain trout in foothills rangeland streams.  Our recent work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Colorado Division of Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, National Park Service, U.S. Army, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Trout Unlimited. 



Public Outreach and Informal Education - RiverWebs Documentary Film

In 2008 our feature-length documentary film RiverWebs was distributed to PBS affiliates nationwide, and has now been broadcast to more than 100 million homes.  This unique film describes our collaboration with Japanese and American scientists in ecological field research to understand linkages between stream and riparian food webs, and the influence of human effects like nonnative species and riparian deforestation on these linkages. We are currently making educational versions for classroom use (see below).

 

Courses Taught

I teach a senior-level course in Conservation of Fish in Aquatic Ecosystems (FW400, every fall), which emphasizes critical reading, thinking, writing, and speaking skills, as well as field excursions to compare the management of different ecosystems for fish.  Every spring semester I teach Community Ecology (EY600), a course in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology curriculum.  This course emphasizes current theories in community ecology for both animals and plants, and the observational and experimental data that support them.  It includes weekly discussion of current papers in these fields. 

 

 

Professional Service

 

University of California Press, Editorial Board, Freshwater Ecology Series   2006-present

Board of Editors Ecological Applications  2000-2003

Advisory Board Ichthyological Research  1996-present

Associate Editor Transactions of the American Fisheries Society  1988-90

Northwest Power and Conservation Council, Peer Review Group of the Independent Scientific Review Panel    2010-present

Fisheries Conservation Foundation (of the American Fisheries Society) Science Team Member: Connecting Headwaters with Estuaries for Salmonids

2005-present 

 

Research by Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Research Scientists (since 1995)

Dr. Charles Gowan (Ph.D. 1995) - Trout response to habitat manipulation in streams at individual and population scales (funded by CDOW). Current position: Paul H. Wornom Professor of Biology, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA.

Ryan K. Smith (B. S. and Honors Program Scholar. 1996) - Thermal tolerance and vegetation preference of Arkansas and johnny darters from Colorado plains streams (CDOW). Current position: Aquatic Ecologist, Freshwater Initiative, The Nature Conservancy, Durham, NC.

Dr. Kevin R. Bestgen (Ph.D. 1997) - Interacting effects of physical and biological factors on recruitment of age-0 Colorado squawfish (USBOR to Larval Fish Laboratory). Current position: Director and Senior Research Scientist, Larval Fish Laboratory, CSU.

Theodore R. Labbe (M.S. 1997) - Dynamics of Arkansas darter populations and their habitat at multiple scales in intermittent Colorado plains streams (CDOW).  Current position: Habitat Biologist, Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, Kingston, WA.

Dr. Elizabeth M. Strange (Postdoctoral Research Assoc. 1996-97) - Measuring economic value of ecological integrity in the South Platte River by contingent valuation (NSF/EPA, with Dr. John Loomis, Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and Dr. Alan Covich). 

Joshua J. Latterell (B.S. 1997) - Effects of flow regime and adult trout abundance on trout recruitment in six Colorado mountain streams (senior research paper). Current position: Environmental Scientist, Watershed and Ecological Assessment Team, King County Department of Natural Resources, Seattle, WA.

Dr. Amy L. Harig (Ph.D. 2000) - Factors influencing success of native cutthroat trout translocations (funded by CDOW, USFS, Trout Unlimited). Current position: Research Statistician/Analyst, Ada County Juvenile Services, Boise, ID.

Benjamin M. Kennedy (B.S. 2000) - Different life history of brook trout populations invading mid-elevation and high-elevation cutthroat trout streams in Colorado (senior research paper).  Current position: Fisheries Biologist, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Abernathy Fish Technology Center, Longview, WA.

Julie A. Scheurer (M.S. 2001) - Systematics and landscape ecology of brassy minnow (Hybognathus hankinsoni) in Colorado (CDOW, CO Water Resources Res. Institute).  Current position: Scientific Technical Editor, National Marine Fisheries Service, Newport, OR. 

Dr. Douglas P. Peterson (Ph.D. 2002) - Population responses of native cutthroat trout to invasions by brook trout (CDOW, U.S. Dept. of Interior, U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited).  Current position: Research Scientist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Longview, WA.

Dr. Edward D. Weber (Ph.D 2003) - Effects hatchery chinook salmon on wild juvenile Chinook salmon in the upper Sacramento River, California (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation).  

Dr. Colden V. Baxter (Postdoctoral Research Scientist 2002-2004) - Interacting effects of riparian habitat disturbances and a stream fish invasion on stream food webs and cross-habitat resource subsidies in northern Hokkaido, Japan (funded by the National Science Foundation).  Current position: Associate Professor, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID.

W. Carl Saunders (M.S. 2006) - Effects of livestock grazing on terrestrial invertebrate subsidies that support trout populations in rangeland streams. (funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Trout Unlimited).  Current position: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Utah State University, Logan, UT.

Dr. Mark A. Coleman (Ph.D. 2007) - Laboratory experiments and field tests of effects of low water temperature on recruitment success of native cutthroat trout (funded by the Colo. Div. of Wildlife, U.S. Dept. of Interior, U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited).   Current position: Principal Scientist, Coleman Ecological, Inc., Fort Collins, CO.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Falke (Ph.D. 2009) - Effects of drought and groundwater pumping for agriculture on stream habitat connectivity and recruitment of threatened plains fishes in the Arikaree River basin, eastern Colorado.  (funded by the Colorado Division of Wildlife).   Current position: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.

Dr. Fabio Lepori (Postdoctoral Research Associate 2007-2009) - Relative effects of native and nonnative salmonids on stream and riparian food webs (funded by the National Science Foundation).  Current position: Assistant Professor, Institute for the Ecology of Fluvial Hydrosystems, University Claude Bernard, Lyon, France.

Dr. W. Carl Saunders (Ph.D. 2010) - Effects of livestock grazing on food webs that support trout populations in rangeland streams. (funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Trout Unlimited).  Current position: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Utah State University, Logan, UT.

Matthew C. Groce (M.S. 2011) - Factors influencing translocation success of Arkansas darter in western Great Plains streams in Colorado: an occupancy sampling approach (funded by the Colorado Division of Wildlife).

James J. Roberts (Postdoctoral Research Associate 2010 - present) - Effects of uncertain climate change on persistence of native cutthroat trout in the Colorado River Basin (funded by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division).


Current Projects 

http://www.cnr.colostate.edu/~kurtf/HVC%2520Bk-Ct.jpg

In addition to the research listed above, I am involved in the following collaborative projects:

 

RiverWebs: Educational versions for classroom use - I am continuing to collaborate with Jeremy Monroe of Freshwaters Illustrated to develop classroom versions of the RiverWebs documentary film for use in junior high school through university science curricula.  This video highlights the interconnections between forests and streams via invertebrate subsidies, and features the pioneering work of my late Japanese colleague, Dr. Shigeru Nakano.

 

Terrestrial effects of an aquatic invader - Dr. Fabio Lepori and I are collaborating with Dr. Colden Baxter and Dr. Joe Benjamin (Idaho State University) on a cross-biome study in two Rocky Mountain regions of the potential impact of nonnative brook trout on stream food webs and subsidies of aquatic invertebrates to riparian spiders.

 

Effects of climate change on native cutthroat trout in the inland West - Dr. James Roberts and I are collaborating with a consortium of fisheries ecologists from throughout the inland West on projecting the effects of climate change on habitats and population persistence of subspecies of native cutthroat trout throughout the inland west.  Collaborators include Drs. Seth Wenger, Dan Isaak, Charles Luce, Bruce Rieman, and Mike Young (US Forest Service), Drs. Jeff Kershner, Bob Gresswell, Clint Muhlfeld, Jason Dunham, Andrew Todd, and Robert Al-Chokachy (US Geological Survey), Dr. Doug Peterson (US Fish and Wildlife Service), and Drs. Helen Neville, Jack Williams, and Dan Dauwalter (Trout Unlimited).  Long-term effectiveness of stream habitat enhancement - I am collaborating with Dr. Charles Gowan and his students Shannon White and Josh Harris (Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA), and with Dr. Carl Saunders, on resampling and anlaysis of trout populations in streams where we installed log weirs in 1988 as part of a large-scale field experiment (see Riley and Fausch 1995; Gowan and Fausch 1996, below).  This retrospective analysis of stream habitat enhancement after two decades is among the longest yet conducted.



Positions in My Lab

I currently do not have any  open positions in my laboratory, and will be on sabbatical during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Recent Publications

Fausch, K. D.  2000.  Shigeru Nakano – an uncommon Japanese fish ecologist.  Environmental Biology of Fishes 59:359-364.

 

Labbe, T. R., and K. D. Fausch.  2000.  Dynamics of intermittent stream habitat regulate persistence of a threatened fish at multiple scales.  Ecological Applications 10:1774-1791.

 

Loomis, J., P. Kent, L. Strange, K. Fausch, and A. Covich.  2000.  Measuring the total economic value of restoring ecosystem services in an impaired river basin: results from a contingent valuation survey.  Ecological Economics 33:103-117.

 

Harig, A. L., K. D. Fausch, and M. K. Young.  2000.  Factors influencing success of greenback cutthroat trout translocations.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 20:994-1004.

 

Fausch, K. D., Y. Taniguchi, S. Nakano, G. D. Grossman, and C. R. Townsend.  2001.  Flood disturbance regimes influence rainbow trout invasion success among five Holarctic regions.  Ecological Applications 11:1438-1455.

 

Poff, N. L., P. L. Angermeier, S. D. Cooper, P. S. Lake, K. D. Fausch, K. O. Winemiller, L. A. K. Mertes, M. W. Oswood, J. Reynolds, and F. J. Rahel.  2001.  Fish diversity in streams and rivers.  Pages 315-350  In: F. S. Chapin III, O. E. Sala, and E. Huber-Sannwald, editors.  Global diversity in a changing environment: scenarios for the 21st century.  Springer-Verlag, New York.

 

Fausch, K. D.  2002.  Preface: Community ecology of salmonid fishes. Pages 3-6 in: Ecology of Streams and Forests: Collective Papers by Shigeru Nakano.  Hokkaido University Press, Sapporo (In Japanese).

 

Fausch, K. D., M. E. Power, and M. Murakami.  2002.  Linkages between stream and forest food webs: Shigeru Nakano's legacy for ecology in Japan.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17:429-434.

 

Fausch, K. D., C. E. Torgersen, C. V. Baxter, and H. W. Li.  2002.  Landscapes to riverscapes: bridging the gap between research and conservation of stream fishes.  BioScience 52:483-498.

 

Gowan, C., and K. D. Fausch. 2002.  Why do foraging stream salmonids move during summer?  Environmental Biology of Fishes 64:139-153.

 

Harig, A. L., and K. D. Fausch.  2002.  Minimum habitat requirements for establishing translocated cutthroat trout populations.  Ecological Applications 12:535-551.

 

Taniguchi, Y., K. D. Fausch, and S. Nakano.  2002.  Stage-structured interactions between native and introduced species: can intraguild predation facilitate invasion by stream salmonids?  Biological Invasions 4:223-233.

 

Kennedy, B. M., D. P. Peterson, and K. D. Fausch.  2003.  Different life histories of brook trout populations invading mid-elevation and high-elevation cutthroat trout streams in Colorado.  Western North American Naturalist 63:215-223.

 

Peterson, D. P., and K. D. Fausch.  2003.  Dispersal of brook trout promotes invasion success and replacement of native cutthroat trout.  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 60:1502-1516.

 

Peterson, D. P., and K. D. Fausch.  2003.  Testing population-level mechanisms of invasion by a mobile vertebrate: a simple conceptual framework for salmonids in streams.  Biological Invasions 5:239-259.

 

Scheurer, J. A., K. R. Bestgen, and K. D. Fausch.  2003.  Resolving taxonomy and historic distribution for conservation of rare great plains fishes: Hybognathus (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in eastern Colorado basins.  Copeia 2003:1-12.

 

Scheurer, J. A., K. D. Fausch, and K. R. Bestgen.  2003.  Multi-scale processes regulate brassy minnow persistence in a Great Plains river.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 132:840-855..

 

Weber, E. D., and K. D. Fausch.  2003.  Interactions between hatchery and wild salmonids in streams: differences in biology and evidence for competition.  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 60:1018-1036.

 

Baxter, C. V., K. D. Fausch, M. Murakami, and P. L. Chapman.  2004.  Fish invasion restructures stream and forest food webs by interrupting reciprocal prey subsidies.  Ecology 85:2656-2663.  Baxter won the 2005 Hynes Award for Young Investigators from the North American Benthological Society for this paper

 

Olden, J. D., N. L. Poff, M. R. Douglas, M. E. Douglas, and K. D. Fausch.  2004.  Ecological and evolutionary consequences of biotic homogenization: beyond a simple focus on species diversity loss.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19:18-24.

 

Peterson, D. P., K. D. Fausch, and G. C. White.  2004.  Population ecology of an invasion: effects of brook trout on native cutthroat trout.  Ecological Applications 14:754-772.

 

Weber, E. D., and K. D. Fausch.  2004.  Abundance and size distribution of ocean-type juvenile chinook salmon in the upper Sacramento River margin before and after hatchery releases.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 24:1447-1455.

 

Fausch, K. D., and M. K. Young.  2004.  Interactions between forests and fish in the Rocky Mountains of the USA. Pages 463-484 in T. G. Northcote and G. F. Hartman, editors.  Fishes and Forestry: Worldwide Watershed Interactions and Management.  Blackwell Science, Oxford, U.K.

 

Weber, E. D., and K. D. Fausch.  2005.  Competition between hatchery-reared and wild juvenile Chinook salmon in enclosures in the Sacramento River, California.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 134:44-58. 

 

Baxter, C. V., K. D. Fausch, and W. C. Saunders.  2005.  Tangled webs: reciprocal flows of invertebrate prey link streams and riparian zones.  Freshwater Biology 50:201-220.

 

Cooney, S. J., A. P. Covich, P. M. Lukacs, A. L. Harig, and K. D. Fausch.  2005.  Modeling global warming scenarios in greenback cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki stomias) streams: implications for species recovery.  Western North American Naturalist 65:371-381.

 

Laeser, S. R., C. V. Baxter, and K. D. Fausch.  2005.  Riparian vegetation loss, stream channelization, and web-weaving spiders in northern Japan.  Ecological Research 20:646-651.

 

Baxter, C. V., K. D. Fausch, M. Murakami, and P. L. Chapman.  2007.  Invading rainbow trout usurp a terrestrial prey subsidy from native charr and reduce their growth and abundance.  Oecologia 153:461-470.

 

Coleman, M. A., and K. D. Fausch.  2007.  Cold summer temperature limits recruitment of age-0 cutthroat trout in high-elevation Colorado streams.  Transactions American Fisheries Society 136:1231-1244.

 

Coleman, M. A., and K. D. Fausch.  2007.  Cold summer temperature regimes cause a recruitment bottleneck in age-0 Colorado River cutthroat trout reared in laboratory streams.  Transactions American Fisheries Society 136:639-654.

 

Fausch, K. D.  2007.  Introduction, establishment and effects of non-native salmonids: considering the risk of rainbow trout invasion in the United Kingdom.  Journal of Fish Biology 71(Supplement D): 1-32.  (Jack Jones Memorial Lecture, Fisheries Society of the British Isles annual meeting, Exeter, U.K.  July 2007)

 

Saunders, W. C., and K. D. Fausch.  2007.  Improved grazing management increases terrestrial invertebrate inputs that feed trout in Wyoming rangeland streams.  Transactions American Fisheries Society 136:1216-1230.

 

Dunham, J., C. Baxter, K. Fausch, W. Fredenberg, S. Kitano, I. Koizumi, K. Morita, T. Nakamura, B. Rieman, K. Savvaitova, J. Stanford, E. Taylor, S. Yamamoto.  2008.  Evolution, ecology, and conservation of Dolly Varden, white-spotted char, and bull trout.  Fisheries 33:537-550.

 

Fausch, K. D.  2008.  A paradox of trout invasions in North America.  Biological Invasions 10: 685-701.

 

Huckins, C. J., E. A. Baker, K. D. Fausch, and J. B. K. Leonard.  2008.  Ecology and life history of coaster brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and potential bottlenecks in their rehabilitation.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28:1321-1342.

 

Peterson, D. P., K. D. Fausch, J. Watmough, and R. A. Cunjak.  2008.  When eradication is not an option: modeling strategies for electrofishing suppression of nonnative brook trout to foster persistence of sympatric native cutthroat trout in small streams.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28:1847-1867.

 

Peterson, D. P., B. E. Rieman, J. B. Dunham, K. D. Fausch, and M. K. Young.  2008.  Analysis of trade-offs between threats of invasion by nonnative brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and intentional isolation for native westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi).  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65:557-573.

 

Fausch, K. D., B. E. Rieman, J. B. Dunham, M. K. Young, and D. P. Peterson.  2009.  The invasion versus isolation dilemma: tradeoffs in managing native salmonids with barriers to upstream movement.

            Conservation Biology 23:859-870.


Falke, J. A., and K. D. Fausch.  2010.  From metapopulations to metacommunities: linking theory with empirical observations of the spatial population dynamics of stream fishes.  American Fisheries Society Symposium 73:207-233.

 

Falke, J. A., K. R. Bestgen, and K. D. Fausch.  2010.  Streamflow reductions and habitat drying affect growth, survival, and recruitment of brassy minnow across a Great Plains riverscape.  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 139:1566-1583.

 

Falke, J. A., K. D. Fausch, K. R. Bestgen, and L. L. Bailey.  2010.  Spawning phenology and habitat use in a Great Plains, USA, stream fish assemblage: an occupancy estimation approach.  Canadian Journal of
            Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 67:1942-1956.

Fausch, K. D. 2010.  A renaissance in stream fish ecology.  American Fisheries Society Symposium 73:199-206.

 

Fausch, K. D., C. V. Baxter, and M. Murakami.  2010.  Multiple stressors in north temperate streams: lessons from linked forest-stream ecosystems in northern Japan.  Freshwater Biology 55(Suppl. 1): 120-134.  (from the Freshwater Biological Association Inaugural Freshwater Summit meeting, Windemere, U.K., September 2008).

 

Wohl, E., D. A. Cenderelli, K. A. Dwire, S. E. Ryan-Burkett, M. K. Young, and K. D. Fausch.  2010.  Large in-stream wood studies: a call for common metrics.  Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
            35:618-625.

 

Falke, J. A., K. D. Fausch, R. Magelky, A. Squires, D. S. Durnford, L. K. Riley, and R. Oad. In press.  The role of groundwater pumping and drought in shaping ecological futures for stream fishes in a dryland
            river basin of the western Great Plains, USA.  Ecohydrology.

Edited Volumes

Yuma, M., I. Nakamura, and K.D. Fausch, editors.  1998.  Fish biology in Japan: an anthology in honour of Hiroya Kawanabe.  Developments in Environmental Biology of Fishes 18, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.

 

 

Visit the Fishery and Wildlife Biology Department of the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University.
   

 

Last Modified  24 January 2011

 


Kurt Fausch / mailto:kurtf@warnercnr.colostate.edu