Letcher, Ben
Adjunct Assistant Professor
S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center
Primary interests
Dr. Letcher’s area of research is population ecology. Particular interests include: identifying mechanisms controlling survival of young fishes, simulation modelling, fish growth and energetics, and fish migration. Current research focuses on understanding factors limiting restoration and population enhancement of Atlantic salmon, American shad, and blueback herring.
Current Projects
- Marker-assisted broodstock management and watershed-scale assessment
of an Atlantic salmon restoration. - Assessment of variation in growth, movement and survival among rivers,
years, seasons, and species. - Estimates of lifetime fitness for stream-dwelling trout.
- Use of Mark-recapture techniques to estimate survival, movement and
selection. - Development of PIT tag technologies.
- Statistical and mechanistic modeling of Atlantic salmon growth,
survival and movement
Current Students
Growth, survival and movement of individual Atlantic salmon in the Pleasant River, Maine,Gregg Horton,PhD
Modelling growth of stream-dwelling Atlantic salmon. Doug Sigourney, PhD
Estimating fitness of wild brook and brown trout. Jason Coombs, PhD
Selected Recent Publications
Refereed :
García De Leániz, C., I.A. Fleming, S. Einum, E. Verspoor, W.C. Jordan, S. Consuegra, N. Aubin-Horth, D.Lajus, B. H. Letcher, A.F. Youngson, J. Webb, L.A. Vøllestad, B. Villanueva, A. Ferguson And T.P. Quinn. In press . A critical review of inherited adaptive variation in Atlantic salmon. Biological Reviews.
Scace, J. and B.H. Letcher. In press . Efficient smolt trap for sandy and debris laden streams. N. Am. J. Fish. Manag.
Sigourney, D.B., G.E. Horton, T.L. Dubreuil, A.M. Varady, B.H. Letcher. 2005. Electroshocking and PIT tagging juvenile Atlantic salmon: are there interactive effects on growth and survival? N. Am. J. Fisheries Manag., 25(3):1016-1021.
Aubin-Horth, N. C. Landry, B. H. Letcher, and H. A. Hofmann. 2005. Alternative life-histories shape different brain gene expression profiles in males of the same population. Proc. R. Soc. B., doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3125.
Aubin-Horth, N. B. H. Letcher, and H. A. Hofmann. 2005. Effects of rearing environment on brain gene expression in Atlantic salmon males expressing alternative reproductive tactics. J. Hered. 96:261-278.
Letcher, B.H., G.E. Horton, T. Dubreuil, M.J. O’Donnell. 2005. Field estimates of the change in strength and direction of selection differentials after accounting for emigration, Evol. Ecol. Res. 5:130-132.
King, T.L., M. S. Eackles, and B. H. Letcher. 2005 . Microsatellite DNA markers for the study of Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) kinship, population structure, and mixed-fishery analyses. Mol. Ecol. Notes.
Letcher, B.H., T. D. Dubreuil, M. J. O’Donnell, M. Obedzinski, K. Griswold and K. Nislow 2004. Long-term consequences of variation in timing and manner of fry introduction on juvenile Atlantic salmon growth, survival and life history expression, Can J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 61:2288-2301.
Obedzinski, M, and B. H. Letcher, 2004. Variation in early development and growth among five New England Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations reared in a common environment. Can J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 61:2314-2328
