The Ludsin Lab welcomed a new PhD student this fall: David Drinko will join ongoing work on the Ohio Division of Wildlife project studying yellow perch populations in the central basin of Lake Erie.

Dr. Ludsin and three of his graduate students all attended the Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society in San Antonio, Texas, August 10-15. They were joined by many colleagues from the Ohio Division of Wildlife who were coauthors and partners in research on many of the presentations. PhD student Kylee Wilson was also awarded the John E. Skinner Memorial Fund Award.

Presentations

Jacob Bentley, Stable Isotope Determination of Reservoir Sport Fish Niches and Food Web Dynamics
Andrew Foley, Novel Methods for Investigating Predation Effects on Larval Lake Erie Yellow Perch
Stu Ludsin, Understanding asynchronous recruitment in western and central Lake Erie’s Yellow Perch Populations
Kylee Wilson, Understanding Yellow Perch angling success in western Lake Erie

We’re all looking forward to hosting next year’s annual meeting here in Columbus!

The AEL once again hosted three students for our Aquatic Ecology & Fisheries Management Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. We continue to be grateful for our partnership with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, which has enabled us to host this wonderful program. Stu Ludsin and PhD student Demetra Williams each oversaw one of the REU students this year.

On Friday, July 25, the students all presented the results of their research projects. All of the students did a great job!

Tracking the Decline: Linking Growth and Recruitment in Yellow Perch Populations.
Lyndy Brambilla, advised by Stuart Ludsin (Aquatic Ecology Laboratory [AEL] Assistant Professor)

Indexing Reservoir Blue Catfish Populations with Low Frequency Electrofishing CPUE.
Owen Meusch, advised by Steve Tyszko (IFRE Fisheries Biologist)

Morphological differences in larval Walleye across Lake Erie spawning populations.
Stephanie Nunez, advised by Demetra Williams (AEL PhD Student)

AELers gathered for another successful Work Day to clean out the detritus of the year on July 16.

Left to fester and grow, dirt and disorganization spread to unyielding proportions throughout the AEL during the course of a single year of enthusiastic field and laboratory work.  The so called “tragedy of the commons” results from use and misuse of the lab and its materials by busy students, techs and work-study students, too busy to clean up after themselves.  Therefore, Work Day was created to reorganize, repair, and sweep clean the past years wear and tear on the AEL.  A successful Work Day will provide a clean and efficient work environment for the year to come.

We had another wonderful breakfast provided by Casey & Lindsey, frozen treats and sports drinks from Jim, and ended the day with pizza from Stu. Everyone was very enthusiastic and we got more done than we had hoped!

AELers attended the Ohio Chapter of the American Fisheries Society summer business meeting at Thomas More University Biology Field Station on Thursday, July 10. Justin Furby, Kylee Wilson, Neal Banaszak, Andrew Foley, Jacob Bentley, and Stu Ludsinall attended. They enjoyed the business meeting and learning about the field stations.

Shaley Valentine attended the annual meeting for the Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico in May 2025. She presented two talks, listed below, and enjoyed an engaging conference along with her AEL colleagues also in attendance.

Ludsin Lab postdoc, Nayan Mallick, graduated with his PhD from University of South Carolina earlier this month. Nayan was advised by Dr. Joshua Stone who was once a postdoc at the AEL.

Several Ludsin Lab undergraduates completed their degrees this spring:

• Paige Dalrymple, who volunteered for Kylee Wilson’s project
• Emma Ficorilli, who worked on multiple Ludsin Lab projects and completed an undergraduate thesis with Stu Ludsin titled, Understanding the influence of early life growth on subsequent growth and body size in juvenile Lake Erie Yellow Perch
• Nieko Mancini, who volunteered on Jacob Bentley’s project

On Thursday, May 1, Jacob Bentley, master’s student with Stu Ludsin, successfully defended his thesis.

His talk was titled, Understanding the Ecological Niche of Introduced Blue Catfish and Resident Sport Fishes in Ohio Reservoirs: Implications for Management.

Well done, Jacob!

After a recess of quite a few years, the annual AEL pig roast has returned!

For many years, AELers gathered at the home of Roy Stein, former director of the AEL, for a fall picnic and pig roast. Due to logistical constraints and then the pandemic, this tradition had been set aside since it’s last occurrence in the fall of 2018.  However, Roy recently generously passed down the pig roaster to Stu, and now the pig roast lives on!

On April 26, a very large group of faculty, students, staff, and their families and other loved ones joined together to enjoy the hard work of Stu, Jacob, Sawyer, Matt (Kylee), Neil, and potentially others, in roasting the whole pig. Everyone else brought sides and desserts that overflowed across three long tables.

Everyone enjoyed lawn games, too much food, and a bonfire. Sawyer and Casey dominated cornhole, running the boards all evening, And kids ran wild, eating their weight in banana pudding and other sweets!

In true AEL fashion, we were all having too good a time during the party to take many photos!