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Emmanuel A. Frimpong
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Academic Interests:
Ecology of fishes in fluvial landscapes; life history-based community and species-habitat modeling; theory and applications of aquatic bioassessment and monitoring; large scale freshwater ecosystem conservation planning and policy
Courses Taught:
- FIW 3514 Fisheries Techniques
- FIW 4614 Fish Ecology
Professional Achievements:
Invited Member: Expert Panel on USGS Aquatic Gap Analysis Program (AGAP)
Awards/Honors:
Outstanding Faculty (2006/2007); by VT College of Natural Resources Curriculum Club
Outstanding Fisheries Faculty of the Year (2006/2007); by VT-AFS
Recent Activities:
Development and Testing of Functional Metrics for Large-Scale Bioassessment
Fish-based bioassessment has been based traditionally on a limited set of mostly trophic or taxonomic metrics. Most taxonomic metrics are applicable only in limited geographic areas and the strong emphasis on trophic functional metrics misses much life-history information of fishes that may respond predictably to environmental changes. We are using life-history theory to develop and test new and existing functional bioassessment metrics. Metric development and testing are being pursued at the scale of the conterminous United States using data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality and Assessment (NAWQA) program. Other important questions concern inter-basin transferability of metrics and their calibration. The products of this project should facilitate the development of country-wide multi-metric indices for assessment of stream and river condition.
Characterization of aquaculture effluents and biological and physicochemical assessment of receiving waters in Ghana
For aquaculture development to be sustainable, it is important to maintain the quality of the aquatic environment that support aquaculture but is also directly threatened by effluents from this aquatic-based industry. Ghana is a developing country with a growing aquaculture sector that is not governed by a well-developed code of environmental practices. In anticipation of potential future regulation of the industry, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Aquaculture and Fisheries Collaborative Research Support Program is funding Virginia Tech through a partnership with Oregon State University and Purdue University to characterize pond aquaculture effluents and develop biological assessment protocols for receiving waters. Results will be used to develop best management practices for the industry to preempt harsh regulations.
Linking at-risk fish trait syndromes with types of human impact
Associations between fish species traits and imperilment have been documented in various regional studies. Evidence is accumulating that species possessing certain traits (e.g., benthicity) are disproportionately represented among imperiled species. It is also acknowledged that traits tend to occur as syndromes (i.e., groups of correlated traits) in species that possess them. The major threats to species can also be sorted into typologies (e.g., pulse, press, and ramp types in perturbation theory). Identifying common trait syndromes or individual traits in native fishes and associating them with imperilment by impact types would be valuable to conservation by providing a framework for predicting and preventing the effects of novel threats on native species. In the pilot phase, this project supported by the USGS National Aquatic GAP will test the utility of frameworks for linking traits to impacts types using imperiled species of the southeastern United States. The goal is to ultimately apply the framework at the continental scale.
Unraveling the mechanisms of fish assemblage changes resulting from landscape transformations
Fish assemblages are used as indicators of stream quality because trophic, reproductive, and habitat guilds are known or hypothesized to shift in assemblage composition in response to landscape transformations that affect instream habitat. Although some guild-habitat relationships have been demonstrated, the mechanisms that explain assemblage changes (e.g., phenotypic plasticity versus natural selection) remain largely hypothetical. Significant natural spatiotemporal variation also occurs in stream fish communities that can mask or accentuate any observed changes resulting from landscape transformations, especially when a snapshot of assemblage data is used. Testing hypotheses about the mechanisms of assemblage change is complicated by a general lack of long-term data on both assemblages and land cover. We have adopted Tom’s Creek, a tributary of the New River in Virginia with significant ongoing and projected development in its watershed, to conduct both snapshot and long-term sampling to test several hypotheses. Some hypotheses are: 1) land cover juxtaposition influences the distribution and long-term persistence of fish populations in a stream, 2) the differential ability of species of fish to move between segment-scale habitat patches will determine their response to changes in land cover that affects local habitat and food availability, and 3) species may exhibit phenotypic plasticity in their trophic niche that amounts to changes in trait state in response to changes in environmental frequencies of food types. This study will inform both basic ecology of fishes and the design of biological assessment indices and monitoring programs.
Identifying stressors in Shenandoah River fish kills
Fish kills have become a predictable occurrence in the Shenandoah River watershed This collaborative research in development will develop and refine a reliable set of fish health metrics to measure cellular and tissue responses to stressors, relate these to environmental factors, and determine if fish health metrics are indicative of population-level responses to stressors. Project will also involve the use of multivariate statistical techniques on observational data to establish the pathways of impacts from sources of stressors to mortality and morbidity.
Selected Publications:
Frimpong, E. A., J. G. Lee, and A. L. Ross-Davis. 2007. Floodplain influence on the cost of riparian buffers and implications for conservation programs. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 62(1):33-39.
Sutton, T.M., R. A. Zeiber, and E. A. Frimpong. 2006. Developing an effective resume or curriculum vitae. Chapter 2 in D. A. Hewitt, W. E. Pine III, and A. V. Zale, editors. An American Fisheries Society guide to fisheries employment, 2nd ed. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland.
Frimpong, E. A., J. G. Lee, and T. M. Sutton. 2006. Cost effectiveness of vegetative filter strips and in-stream half-logs for ecological restoration. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 42(5):1349-1361.
Frimpong, E. A., A. L. Ross-Davis, J. G. Lee, and S. R. Broussard. 2006. Biophysical and socioeconomic factors explaining the extent of forest cover on private ownerships in a Midwest (USA) agrarian landscape. Landscape Ecology 21(5):763-776.
Frimpong, E. A., and S. E. Lochmann. 2006. An evaluation of the effect of treatments for pond water reuse on zooplankton populations. North American Journal of Aquaculture 68(1):103-109.
Frimpong, E. A., T. M. Sutton, B. A. Engel, and T. P. Simon. 2005. Spatial-scale effects on relative importance of physical habitat predictors of stream health. Environmental Management 36(6):899-917.
Frimpong, E. A., T. M. Sutton, K. J. Lim, P. J. Hrodey, B. Engel, T. P. Simon, J. G. Lee, and D. C. Le Master. 2005. Determination of optimal riparian forest buffer dimensions for stream biota–landscape association models using multimetric and multivariate responses. Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences 62(1):1-6.
Frimpong, E. A., and S. E. Lochmann. 2005. Mortality of fish larvae exposed to varying concentrations of cyclopoid copepods. North American Journal of Aquaculture 67(1):66-71.
Frimpong, E. A., S. E. Lochmann, M. Bodary, and N. Stone. 2004. Suspended solids from baitfish pond effluents in drainage ditches. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society 35(2):159-166.
Frimpong, E. A., S. E. Lochmann, and N. M. Stone. 2003. Application of a methodology for surveying and comparing prevalence of drainage ditches to baitfish farms. North American Journal of Aquaculture 65(2):165-170.
Work In Revision
Frimpong, E. A., T. M. Sutton, and T. P. Simon. Ecological health and integrity:
integrating concepts with a model for aquatic ecosystem management. Environmental
Management.
Work In Review
Frimpong, E. A., and P. L. Angermeier. Regional frameworks for fish-based bioassessment in the United States. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.
Hrodey, P. J., T. M. Sutton, E. A. Frimpong, and T. P. Simon. Effects of land-use practices on warmwater stream communities in Indiana. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.
Frimpong, E. A., and P. L. Angermeier. FishTraits: A database of ecological and life-history traits of freshwater fishes of the United States.
Last updated January 24, 2008