Dr. Rex Meade Strange
Postdoctoral researcher
Dr. Strange comments, "My research interests include the processes of anagenetic change and cladogenetic diversification within the North American freshwater fish fauna." Dr. Strange's primary mission in his two year postdoctoral study (2004-6) in the Great Lake Genetics Laboratory was to work with Dr. Stepien to investigate the phylogeographic structure of walleye (Sander vitreus) spawning groups in Lake Erie. This postdoctoral research was supported by Dr. Stepien's NOAA Sea Grant Project # RL/R 7 "Development and implementation of a high-resolution data base for fishery management: Walleye and yellow perch stock structure." Dr. Strange's postdoctoral study focused on population structure in Lake Erie walleye using ten microsatellite loci, and included all recognized native spawning populations in the Lake. The practical aspect of this study is that the analysis identified management units (stocks) of this commercially important species. It also identified certain spawning groups (e.g., Cattaraugus Creek, Huron River, Western Reefs, Smoke's Creek, and Grand River, Ontario) as distinctive within the Lake and worthy of conservation. A paper on this work was published in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 2007 by Strange and Stepien, "Genetic divergence and connectivity among river and reef spawning populations of walleye (Sander vitreus) in Lake Erie". In addition, Dr. Strange co-authored a paper on smallmouth bass stock structure across the Great Lakes using eight microsatellite loci, by Stepien, Murphy, and Strange 2007 in Molecular Ecology, "Broad- to fine-scale population genetic patterning in the smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu across the Laurentian Great Lakes and beyond: An interplay of behavior and geography." Dr. Strange also authored another paper with Dr. Stepien as co-author, 2007 in U.S. Fishery Bulletin "DNA analysis distinguishes North American". After completing his postdoctoral study in the Great Lakes Genetics Lab, Dr. Strange began a full time position in fall 2006 as an assistant professor of developmental biology with the University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN, where he is teaching histology and other courses.