University of Alaska Fairbanks SCHOOL OF FISHERIES AND OCEAN SCIENCES  
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Remembering Dr. Nicholas Hughes

Professional Information from his SFOS faculty webpage (2006):

Education

Research Overview

My long term research goal is to develop and test general theories that explain interactions between stream salmonids and their habitats. The logic for this research program is that the stream habitat acts as a template, guiding the way natural selection shapes the ecology and behavior of individual fish, and that larger scale properties such as distribution patterns, population dynamics, and community structure can be explained in terms of the ecology and behavior of individuals. So far this approach has been successful in explaining many features of distribution patterns, but I believe it can be extended much further in the fields of population dynamics, life-history theory, and community ecology. This program has both basic and applied aspects, especially as more em-phasis is placed on the management and restoration of riparian habitats.

I teach three courses in fisheries and biology, Freshwater Fishes of Alaska (FISH/BIOL 384), Fisheries Management (FISH/NRM 401), and Fish Ecology (FISH/BIOL 650). I also regularly organize a graduate seminar to discuss topics in fisheries and aquatic ecology (FISH/BIOL 692). In Freshwater Fishes of Alaska we focus on the identification, biogeography, evolutionary history, life history, ecology, and behavior of Alaska's freshwater fishes. This fascinating subject makes an ideal course for anyone specializing in fisheries or aquatic ecology, or as a supplement to a degree program focused more on biology, wildlife, or resource management. Fisheries Management stresses the fundamental concepts that underlie scientific fisheries management.

Topics include: the objectives of fisheries management, the history of fisheries management, population dynamics, the influence of fishing on fish populations, management concepts and models for commercial and sport fisheries, and habitat management and conservation. This is an oral and writing intensive course and participants will gain experience in preparing and making professional oral and written presentations on a fisheries management topic. Fish Ecology is a graduate level course in which we endeavour to explain patterns of fish distribution and abundance in terms of individual behavior, as shaped by natural selection. We will stress theoretical ideas and their expression in predictive models. Topics include: an introduction to evolutionary ideas, foraging ecology, habitat selection, Ideal Free Distribution Theory, territoriality, dominance hierarchies, growth physiology, predation and predation risk,competition, foraging in groups, reproductive strategies, sex ratios, life history theory, and population dynamics.

Selected Publications

Hughes, N. F. In press. Testing the ability of habitat selection theory to predict interannual movement patterns of a drift-feeding salmonid. Ecology of Freshwater Fish

Hughes, N. F. and T. C. Grand. In press. Physiological ecology meets the ideal free distribution: predicting the distribution of size-structured fish populations across temperature gradients. Env. Biology of Fishes.