Research Interests

My interests lie in the mix of ecology and fisheries/aquaculture. I am interested, in general, with (1) the early life history of fishes and how growth and survival rates are influenced by environmental variables and (2) how the structure of biological communities is related to environmental parameters.

My early research experiences focused on the ecology of larval Atlantic cod. The research was completed in the laboratory and determined the costs of fast growth experienced in the early life of cod. I specifically studied susceptibility to starvation and the range of temperatures that support optimal growth and high survival. The research was geared towards improving the aquaculture of cod and contributing knowledge of recruitment dynamics for fisheries management.

Working on larval cod during the 1990’s, during which time a well documented dramatic loss/reduction of many fish populations occurred, convinced me of the relevance of multi-species, ecosystem/area- based and adaptive management concepts. Presently I am working on developing measures of fish community structure in the Gulf of Maine. I am using different survey datasets and multivariate analyses to determine biological structure at different scales and how it is related to different physical drivers. The purpose is to assign key variables that determine ecological structure across a variety of habitats. Those variables can be used to forecast possible changes in ecological structure that could accompany changes in environmental factors (climate) and design no-take reserves and area-based adaptive management as to appropriately reflect ecological gradients and heterogeneity (habitat use, dispersal).

Here at SoMAS, my research in the laboratory of Dr. David Conover uses two surveys; 1) a long-term (25year+) beach seine survey of the abundance of fishes in the Hudson River estuary, focusing on young-of-the-year striped bass and 2) a trawl survey of the distribution and abundance of juvenile sturgeon on the continental shelf of New York state waters. I continue to work on early life history stages and growth, and development of variables related to ecological structure (spatial and temporal) in survey datasets. In addition, I will be involved in new work on recruitment and survival of young-of-year striped bass and the determination of Atlantic sturgeon ocean habitats.

Selected Publications

Kling, L. J., Muscato Hansen, J. and A. Jordaan. 2007. Growth, survival and feed efficiency for post-metamorphosed Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) reared at different temperatures. Aquaculture 262(2-4): 281-288.

Jordaan, A., Hayhurst, S. E., and L. J. Kling. 2006. The influence of temperature on the stage at hatch of laboratory reared Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and implications for comparisons of length and morphology. Journal of Fish Biology 68, 7–24.

Jordaan, A. and J.A. Brown. 2003. The risk of running on empty: the influence of age on starvation and gut fullness in larval Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 60 (10): 1289-1298.

Jordaan, A. and L.J. Kling. 2003. Determining the optimal temperature range for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) during early life. In: H.I. Browman and A.B. Skiftesvik (Eds.). The Big Fish Bang. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Larval Fish Conference. Pp: 45-62. Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway. Online at: http://www.fishlarvae.com/e/Book_Reader.asp?pg=/e/BigBang/Jordaan.pdf&pgid=223