The objective of this project is to establish the current marketing status and potential for yellow perch products with wholesale and retail businesses in the seafood marketing channels in the North Central Region of the United States.

While there is an emerging consensus on the climate risks faced by different areas of the country, there is a profound lack of information on how local governments are responding to these risks. This proposal begins to fill the information gap by funding a faculty-student team to assist local officials in Indiana counties bordering Lake Michigan to complete the Hoosier Resilience Index Readiness Assessment (HRA). This instrument, developed by research staff at Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI), offers unique insight into the local response to climate risks, facilitating analysis of the political, social, and economic factors that shape policy decisions. 

• Monitor environmental factors and larval zebra mussel abundances in the Hudson River and contrast conditions in embayments and in the main river channel
• Conduct dye studies near embayments to determine their ability to retain zebra mussel larvae
• Use data from the Hudson River and our previous data from the Illinois and Hudson Rivers to determine whether side embayments can act as sources or sinks for zebra mussel larvae

• Establish laboratory procedures for the analysis of microplastics in sediment of natural waters, and obtain preliminary data for Lake Michigan

This project aims to demonstrate the potential to use well-quantified niche shifts from established ‘avatar invaders’ to develop plausible distributions for similar emerging invaders. The study uses the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii as an ‘avatar invader’ and the yabby Cherax destructor, as a data-poor emerging invader.