Chet F. Rakocinski, Ph.D.
Associate Professor - Department of Coastal Sciences, Benthic Ecology Program
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Adjunct Professor with USM Department of Biological Sciences and University of Mississippi Department of Biology
(228) 872-4284, fax: (228) 872-4204
chet.rakocinski@usm.edu
Gulf Coast Research Laboratory
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
My research centers on benthic ecology and fisheries ecology in marine, estuarine, and freshwater habitats. My overarching goal is to carry out an integrated research program to examine processes affecting macrobenthic communities, recruitment dynamics, and trophic relationships between fishes and macroinvertebrates. Research efforts address macrobenthic responses to environmental change and anthropogenic alteration, recruitment ecology of early life-stages of estuarine dependent fisheries species, habitat use, trophic ecology, and the effects of biotic interactions on trophic relationships. For my doctoral research I examined feeding tactics, prey-size use, and habitat relationships of primitive stream‑dwelling darters.