Biosciences
Outside Links
Professor of Biosciences
B.Sc.,
Ph.D., University of Western
Research Interests:
Chemical ecology of predator-prey interactions
In aquatic environments, the proximate environmental cues that trigger antipredator behaviors are often chemical in nature. In my lab we study several classes of chemical cues that elicit antipredator responses in fish and aquatic invertebrates. Examples of recent results from our lab have been how minnows use visual and chemical cues to detect and avoid parasite attack, how young convict cichlids use chemical cues of their parents to find home, the duration of biologically activity of chemical alarm cues of fathead minnows and gammarus shrimp, how the use of chemical information by zebrafish changes in the presence and absence of flow and using chemical cues to train hatchery-reared walleye to recognize and avoid pike. These experiments are conducted in the aquatic research facility in the basement of the SL building. In the summer and fall, we do field experiments on wild, natural populations of fish and invertebrates. Some of the study sites are nearby, for example at the Buffalo River at the MSUM Regional Science Center, while others are slightly more distant - Budd and Deming Lakes in Itasca State Park.
Reproductive behavior in fishes
I also conduct research on parental care and the ontogeny of antopredator behavior in convict cichlids in the lab and at field sites in Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve, Costa Rica, and more recently Laguna Xiloa, Nicaragua. Convict cichlids form monogamous pair bonds and practice biparental care of their eggs and offspring. The extent and duration of care is dependent on antipredator competence of the young, and the ontogeny of antipredator competence is reflected in the trade-off in resource allocation between egg size and egg number. Closer to home, I study paternal care in fathead minnows in Budd Lake, Itasca State Park, and mound-building behavior by male hornyhead chub in the headwaters of the Mississippi River (also at Itasca).
For more information, including a list of publications, see my personal web page at www.mnstate.edu/wisenden.
Teaching:
Invertebrate Zoology
Vertebrate Zoology
Organismal Biology
EEB Research Design
Advising:
B.A. in Biology, Emphasis in Ecology and Evolutionary Bio
Link to Dr. Wisenden's web page
Back to Biosciences Faculty & Staff