Dr. Michael Booth

Biography

Mike received a bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He had the opportunity to work in a variety of systems including tidepools and estuaries along the California coast, inland Alaska, and the Grand Canyon in the greater Southwest. He completed his PhD at Cornell University, where he was advised by Nelson Hairston, Jr., and Alex Flecker, focusing on the role of native fishes, particularly suckers, in desert stream ecosystems. Mike has served as a fisheries biologist and ecologist for the United Water Conservation District, a state groundwater agency in Southern California, from 2011 to 2018. He later became a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati, addressing both basic science and applied management challenges related to fisheries and aquatic ecology. Throughout his career, Mike has worked in native coastal California and has focused on various topics including habitat assessment, reservoirs, stormwater management, and the ecology of urban streams. He moved to the Michigan Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in 2024. The Booth Lab focuses on freshwater aquatic systems, particularly the movement behavior of organisms and their influence on ecosystem processes. His research interests span basic natural history questions such as fish movement and dispersal, responses to management interventions, and understanding ecosystem dynamics including sediment and nutrient fluxes. He utilizes creative technological approaches to address research questions at various scales, aiming to provide data and conceptual understanding of biological processes to inform resource management in aquatic systems. Mike collaborates with regional, state, and federal resource agencies as well as various management practitioners to tackle diverse environmental issues linked to the sustainable management of fisheries and water resources.

Research Interests

Experience