Stephen Mccormick
Adjunct Professor
Education
B.S.- Bates College, Lewiston, Maine B.S., June 1977
Ph.D.- Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Biological Oceanography, September 1983
Postdoctoral- St. Andrews Biological Station, New Brunswick, Canada, 1983-86 Department of Zoology, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1986-90
Research Interests: Environmental Physiology of Migratory Fishes
Physiological demands are especially important to anadromous fish because of their need to move between freshwater and seawater and to make long, often difficult, migrations. These demands can become critical when there are barriers to migration or other changes in river ecosystems. Research in Mccormick Lab centers on physiological and endocrine changes that may limit fish populations, particularly those in need of conservation or restoration. Mccormick Lab is particularly interested in how environmental change, both of ‘natural’ and ‘human’ origins, affects normal growth and development in anadromous fish. Physiological systems such as ion regulation, stress, energetics, growth and reproduction are critical for survival of migratory fish. Environmental factors such as climate change, salinity, temperature, stress, hatchery practices, dams and pollution may affect normal development of these complex systems. Because of threats to their survival in many rivers in the northeastern US, Atlantic salmon, American shad, blueback herring, alewife, brook trout, sturgeon and lamprey are the anadromous species of primary interest.