Tag: Crawdad

Electrofishing for Crayfish

by Megan Leinenbach, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
Since its origin, more than 40,000 years ago, fishing has taken a variety of forms — from spearing to hook-and-line fishing. In the 1960s, scientists began using a method called “electrofishing” to study aquatic populations. In a study published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management, USDA Forest Service scientist Zanethia Barnett researched the…  More 

Dams & Crayfish Genetics

by Casey Conrad, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
In Alabama, crayfishes are being separated and genetically changed, which increases the risk of local extinction. This work is not done by a mad scientist, but by dams with their reservoirs and unnatural pools of water. A novel study published in the journal Freshwater Biology by USDA Forest Service scientists Zanethia Barnett and Susan Adams,…  More 

Two New Species of Crayfish Discovered in Alabama and Mississippi

by Sydney Marie Jones, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
In 2011, a group of researchers traveled to southern Alabama and Mississippi in search of the Rusty Gravedigger crayfish (Lacunicambarus miltus). They wanted to refine the species’ range and hoped to find a new population west of Mobile Bay. Instead, they found a potentially undescribed species of crayfish. Years later, a team led by Mael…  More 

Women in Science: Susie Adams

by Patty Matteson and Stephanie Worley-Firley, SRS Public Affairs  • 
The Southern Research Station (SRS) has the distinction of having employed the first woman research forester in the U.S. Forest Service. It was 1930 when Margaret Stoughton Abell began her pioneering work with what was known then as the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station (the precursor to the SRS). Today the number of women working in…  More