Dr. W. Charles Kerfoot
Professor
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1972

Research Area: Aquatic Ecology; Paleoecology; Director, Lake Superior Ecosystem Research Center.

Research Description:

Dr. Kerfoot's laboratory plays a central role in the ecology research conducted by the department of biological sciences. This laboratory specializes on the food web structure, ecology and paleoecology of lake communities.

Funded research includes recently-awarded five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) projects on Lakes Superior (KITES) and Lake Michigan (EEGLES), a three-year NSF project on groundwater coupling, and studies of German and Russian lakes (including the Caspian Sea), in addition to regionally funded work on mercury and copper in Lake Superior basin.

Dr. Kerfoot's portion of the KITES and EEGLES projects examines sediment transport and how different zooplankton populations develop in nearshore and offshore waters, the importance of recruitment from resting eggs, and how the Keweenaw current transports individuals and resting eggs around the lake, creating a "coastal corridor".

Details include genetic characterization of resting egg "seed banks", hatching of eggs, cloning, sequencing, and testing how ancestral individuals differ from present-day populations.

In addition, we investigate how episodic events (large storms) purge seed banks and maintain genetic diversity. The groundwater-lake coupling study looks at how groundwater flow naturally promotes algal communities in lakes and maintains benthic diatom diversity.

Ocean Color Spectrum

Recent and Selected Publications:

• W.C Kerfoot, J.W. Budd, S.A. Green, J.B. Cotner, B.A. Biddanda, D.J.
  Schwab and H.A. Vanderploeg 2007 Doughnut in the desert: late-winter
  production pulse in southern Lake Michigan. Limnol. Oceanogr (In press).
• Kerfoot W. C., J.W. Budd, J.H. Churchill and C. Chen 2007 Metacommunity perspective on zooplanktonic communities in Lake Superior. Mohi Munawar, ed (In press).
• Kerfoot, W. C., J. Jeong, and J.A. Robbins 2007 Lake Superior mining
  and the proposed mercury zero-discharge region for Lake Superior “State
  Of The Lake”  Mohi Munawar, ed. (In press).
  
• Churchill, J.H. and W.C. Kerfoot 2007 The impact of surface heat flux
  and wind on thermal stratification in Portage Lake, Michigan. J. Great Lakes Res. .
  33(1):143-155. PDF File
• Kerfoot, W.C. 2006. The Baltic Eubosmina radiation: sensitivity to
  invertebrate predators (induction) and observations on genetic
  differences. Arch. Hydrobiol. 167(1-4): 147-168.
• Hagerthey, S.E. and W.C. Kerfoot. 2005. Spatial variation in
  groundwater-related resource supply influences freshwater benthic algal
  assemblage composition. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 24(4): 807-819. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., G. G. Mittelbach, N. G. Hairston, Jr. and J. J. Elser. 2004. Planktonic biodiversity: Scaling up and down. Limnology and Oceanography 49: 1225-1228.
  
• Kerfoot, W.C. and L. J. Wieder. 2004. Experimental paleoecology (resurrection ecology): Chasing Van Valen’s red queen hypothesis. Limnology and Oceanography 49: 1300-1316. PDF File
  
• Jarnagin, S. T., W. C Kerfoot and B. K. Swan 2004. Zooplankton life cycles: Direct documentation of pelagic births and deaths relative to diapausing egg production. Limnology and Oceanography 49: 1317-1332. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C. J. W. Budd, B. J. Eadie, H. A. Vanderploeg, and M. Agy. 2004. Winter storms: Sequential sediment traps record Daphnia ephippial production, resuspension and sediment interactions. Limnology and Oceanography 49: 1365-1381. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., X. Ma, C. S. Lorence. 2004. Toward resurrection ecology: Daphnia mendotae and D. retrocurva in the coastal region of Lake Superior, among the first successful outside invaders? J. Great Lakes Research 30 (Supplement 1): 285-299. PDF File
  
• Churchill, J. H., W. C. Kerfoot, and M. T. Auer. 2004 Exchange of water between the Keweenaw Waterway and Lake Superior: Characterstics and forcing mechanisms. J. Great Lakes Research 30 (Supplement 1): 55-63. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot,W. C., S. L. Harting, J. Jeong, J. A. Robbins and R. Rossmann. 2004. Local, Regional, and Global Implications of Elemental Mercury in Metal (Copper, Silver, Gold, and Zinc) Ores: Insights from Lake Superior Sediments. J. Great Lakes Research 30 (Supplement 1): 162-184. PDF File
  
• Barnhisel, D.R. and W. C. Kerfoot. 2004. Fitting into food webs: Behavioral and functional response of young lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) to an introduced prey, the spiny cladoceran (Bythotrephes cederstroemi). J. Great Lakes Research 30 (Supplements 1) 300-314. PDF File
  
• Compton, J. A. and W. C. Kerfoot. 2004. Colonizing inland lakes: Consequences of YOY fish ingesting the spiny cladoceran (Bythotrephes cederstroemi). J. Great Lakes Research. 30 (Supplement 1): 315-326. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., A. Robbins, and L. J. Weider. 1999. A new approach to historical reconstruction: combining descriptive and experimental paleolimnology. Limnology and Oceanography 44(5): 1232-1247. PDF File
  
• Hagerthey, S.E. and W. C. Kerfoot. 1998. Groundwater flow influences the biomass and nutrient ratios of epibenthic algae in a north temperate seepage lake. Limnology and Oceanography 43 (6): 1227-1242.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., R. M. Newman, and Z. Hanscom III. 1998. Snail reaction to watercress leaf tissues: reinterpretation of a mutualistic ``alarm'' hypothesis. J. Freshwater Biology 40:201-213.
  
• Budd, J.W., W.C. Kerfoot and A.L. Maclean. 1998. Documenting complex surface temperature patterns from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery of Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron. J. Great Lakes Research 24(2): 582-594.
  
• Newman, R. M., W. C. Kerfoot and Z. Hanscom III. 1996. Watercress alleochemical defends high nitrogen foliage against consumption: Effects on freshwater invertebrate herbivores. Ecology. 77(8): 2312-2323.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C. 1995. Bosmina remains in Lake Washington sediments: Qualitative heterogeneity of bay environments and quantitative correspondence to production. Limnology and Oceanography 40(2): 211-225.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., G. Lauster, and J.A. Robbins. 1994. Paleoecological study of copper mining around Lake Superior: Artificial varves from Portage Lake provide a high resolution record. Limnology and Oceanography 39: 649-669.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., and A. Sih (editors). l987. Predation: Direct and Indirect Impacts on Aquatic Communities. University Press of New England, Hanover. N.H. 386 pp.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C. (editor). l980. The Evolution and Ecology of Zooplankton Communities. University Press of New England, Hanover. N.H. 793 pp.
  

• Kerfoot, W. C. and D. L. DeAngelis.  1989.  Scale-dependent dynamics: zooplankton and the stability of freshwater food webs.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 4: 167-171.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., C. Levitan, and W. R. DeMott.  1988. Daphnia-phytoplankton interactions: Density-dependent shifts in resource quality.  Ecology 69: 1806-1825.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C.  1987.  Translocation experiments:  copepod predation on Bosmina.  Ecology 68: 596-610.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., W. R. DeMott, and C. Levitan.  1985.  Nonlinearities in competitive interactions:  component variables or system response? Ecology 66: 959-965.
  
• DeMott, W. R., and  W. C. Kerfoot.  1982.  Competition among cladocerans: coexistence of Bosmina and Daphnia.  Ecology 63: 1949-1966.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C. 1982.  A question of taste: crypsis and warning coloration in freshwater zooplankton communities.  Ecology  63: 538-554.
  
• Manning, J.,  W. C. Kerfoot, and E. M. Berger.  1978.  Phenotypes and genotypes in cladoceran populations.  Evolution 32: 365-374 PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C., R. Pastorok.  1978.  Survival versus competition: Evolutionary compromises and diversity in the zooplankton.  Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol. 20: 362-374. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C.  1977.  Implications of copepod predation.  Limnol. Oceanogr. 22: 316-325. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C.  1977.  Competition in cladoceran communities:  The cost of evolving defenses against copepod predation.  Ecology 58: 303-313. PDF File
  
• Kerfoot, W. C.  1975.  The divergence of adjacent populations.  Ecology 56: 1298-1313.
  
• Kerfoot, W. C.  1974.  Net accumulation rates and the history of cladoceran communities.  Ecology 55: 51-61. PDF File