Species & Ecosystem Science

Project Leads

Mara S. Zimmerman, Ph.D.
Research Scientist

Dr. Zimmerman joined WDFW in 2008. She leads the Wild Salmon Production Evaluation Unit which is a team of biologists and technicians studying salmonid populations across western Washington. Mara is a field biologist at heart with a background in aquatic ecosystems, community ecology, and multivariate statistics. Her background in fish ecology has taken her on a journey from darters in the North Carolina piedmont, to sticklebacks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to lake trout in large lakes of North America. She currently studies the survival and life history diversity of salmon and steelhead in Washington State where she applies her ecological training to the applied issues of fisheries management. Her strength is as an empirical scientist and she welcomes the opportunity to better understand fish populations by integrating ecological, life history, physiology, and genetic information.

Current Research

• Intensively Monitored Watersheds
• Production and Survival of Puget Sound Salmonids
• Research Methods for Salmonid Abundance Estimation
• Wild Coho Production and Survival

Selected Publications

• Zimmerman, M. S., K. Krueger, B. Ehinger, P. Roni, R. Bilby, J. Walters, and T, Quinn. 2012. Intensively Monitored Watersheds Program: An updated plan to monitor fish and habitat responses to restoration actions in the Lower Columbia watersheds, FTP 12-03. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, Washington.
• Zimmerman, M. S., and C. Kinsel. 2010. Migration of anadromous juvenile bull trout in the Skagit River, 1990-2009, FPT 11-02. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, Washington.
• McPhee, M. V., M. S. Zimmerman, T. D. Beacham, B. R. Beckman, J. B. Olsen, L. W. Seeb, and W. D. Templin. 2010. Abundance and structure in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region. In C. C. Krueger and C. E. Zimmerman, editors. Pacific salmon: ecology and management of Western Alaska'a populations. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland.
• Zimmerman, M.S. and C.C. Krueger. 2009. Proximate body composition and measures of lake trout lipid content. Completion report to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
• Zimmerman, M. S., S. N. Schmidt, C. C. Krueger, M. J. Vander Zanden, and R. L. Eshenroder. 2009. Ontogenetic niche shifts and resource partitioning of lake trout morphotypes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 66:1007-1018.
• Zimmerman, M. S., C. C. Krueger, and R. L. Eshenroder. 2007. Morphological and ecological differences between shallow- and deep-water morphotypes in Lake Mistassini, Quebec. Journal of Great Lakes Research 33:156-169.
• Zimmerman, M. S., C. C. Krueger, and R. L. Eshenroder. 2006. Phenotypic diversity of lake trout in Great Slave Lake: differences in morphology, buoyancy, and habitat depth. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 135:1056-1067.
• Zimmerman, M. S. 2007. A field study of brook stickleback morphology: multiple predators and multiple traits. Canadian Journal of Zoology 85:250-260.
• Zimmerman, M. S. 2006. Predator communities associated with brook stickleback (Culaea inconstans) prey: patterns in body size. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 63:297-309.