Fisheries Population Dynamics
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FAS 6337C -- This foundational quantitative course is aimed at providing graduate students with analytical abilities to answer research questions on many common fisheries datasets. The class covers growth, maturity, mortality, recruitment, and demonstrates a few of the simpler stock assessment methods. This class features a series of interactive modules to facilitate hands-on exploration of course concepts through simulation. These modules were built with R-Shiny and have helped students beyond the course with power and exploratory analysis in their degrees and professional applications. This online course caters to distance and in-town graduates primarily, though advanced undergraduates can enroll.
I have taught this course since 2020 as the instructor, taking over from Dr. Micheal Allen. I previously took this class as a Ph.D. student in 2013 then co-taught in 2014 and 2017. |
(Above) Cohort abundance of Black Crappie from Lake Lochloosa. Data such as this is used to teach Virtual Population Analysis, a hindcasting method of stock assessment.
(Above) The welcome module for the fisheries population dynamics interactive modules
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Above is an embedded Shiny app that compares the growth of Spotted Seatrout from two populations in Florida. The app runs von Bertalanffy growth models using a maximum likelihood estimation based in R. Users can choose whether to share all, some, or none of the parameters of the growth models between the populations. Each model tested is recorded and the resulting Akaike's Information Criterion is displayed for users to conduct their own model selection after testing various models. In the FAS 6377C course, an app such as this is paired with an assignment to explore the data, build and test models, conduct model selection, and biologically/ecologically interpret the results.
Advanced Quantitative Fisheries Assessment
FAS 6339C — Colloquially known as stock assessment, this course was previously taught by Dr. Robert Ahrens. I will be offering this course again in the Spring of 2024. This course will focus on teaching advanced quantitative techniques covering the range of fisheries assessment and fisheries ecology problems. A key module in this course is building up to fitting a statistical catch-at-age model, a commonly applied fisheries stock assessment method throughout the United States. Students will also learn various data processing methods to prepare information for going into assessments, such as catch-per-unit effort standardization.