|
OU Home Page
College of Arts and Sciences
Zoology
Department
Botany/Microbiology
Department
Oklahoma Biological Survey
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
Kessler Farm Field Laboratory
|
 |
William Matthews
Academic Chair, University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology
Professor, University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology
Ph.D., 1977, University of Oklahoma
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Structure of fish assemblages, with emphasis on long-term changes and the role of the environment
-
Functional roles and effects of fishes in stream ecosystems
-
Zoogeography, distributional ecology and systematics of North American freshwater fishes
-
Ecology of fishes in reservoir-river systems.
RESEARCH STATEMENT
My research is focused on ecology and systematics of North American fishes, with emphasis on midwestern or southwestern taxa and systems. The broad areas in which I have greatest interest are (1) structure and long-term stability of local fish assemblages, (2) effects of fish in ecosystems, (3) zoogeography and distributional ecology of native fishes, and (4) basic ecology of fishes in river-reservoir ecosystems, with emphasis on Lake Texoma (Oklahoma-Texas). I am a Professor of Zoology, Curator of Fishes in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, and a Resident Scientist at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station at Lake Texoma. In 2000 the museum moved into a huge new building, with new facilities for the fish collection, and salaried curators (myself and Dr. Edie Marsh-Matthews) in the fish range. In the museum, I continue primary focus on distribution, ecology, and long-term structure of native fish assemblages and work with regional systematic problems. At the Biological Station I work with (1) two decades of community structure and basic ecology of fishes in the reservoir, and (2) experimental studies of effects of fish in stream systems using large, outdoor artificial streams in our Research Park.The reservoir research has resulted in large, long-term data sets of fish distribution based on gill netting, electrofishing, shoreline seining, and larval fish trawling, and my graduate students have carried out experimental studies of the effects of fish in the Lake Texoma ecosystem. In the artificial streams, my graduate students, collaborators, and I have carried out experiments on the potential effects of prairie-stream fishes in the Interior Highlands in the event of global change; on the potential effect of red shiner minnows (Cyprinella lutrensis) within stream ecosystems or upon native fishes where it is introduced outside its range; and on dynamics of temporal change in replicated fish communities. In particular, the research in the experimental streams system now expands from my previous work on the algivorous minnow, Campostoma anomalum, to examine effects of various other functional groups of fishes in stream ecosystems.In the last decade I have had funding from the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, and USDA Forest Service, as well as support from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and private funding. Dr. Gary Schnell and I also have a large project for the Corps of Engineers and EPA for a multi-year examination of effects of human impacts on flora and fauna in Lake Texoma. I accept graduate students in any of the areas above, and can accommodate their research on the OU campus in Norman, or as students in residence at the Biological Station, where large, modern laboratories and dorms are available. |
|
| Updated
19 November, 2009 |
|
|
