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Research about Ohio, Ontario

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Ohio, Ontario.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Diet of the double-crested cormorant in western Lake Erie

Sport and commercial fishing interest groups are concerned about potential impacts double-crested cormorants ( Phalacrocorax auritus ) may have on fish species. Our objectives for this study were to determine the diet of the cormorant in western Lake Erie and the diet overlap and competition for resources with piscivorous fish, such as walleye ( Stizostedion vitreum ). The stomach contents of 302 double-crested cormorants collected in western Lake Erie consisted primarily of young-of-the-year gizzard shad ( Dorosoma cepedianum ), emerald shiner ( Notropis atherinoides ), and freshwater drum ( Aplodinotus grunniens ). In the spring, freshwater drum were the most frequently occurring food in the stomachs and constituted the greatest portion of the diet by weight. Young gizzard shad became the most abundant prey and made up the largest percentage of the diet by weight in the stomachs from the end of July through October. Emerald shiners were abundant in the diet during June, September, and October. The fish species that cormorants ate resembled, by proportion, the species mix found in trawl catches. The diets of cormorants and walleyes were similar from July to October with significant overlap. Results from this study suggest impacts of cormorants at current population levels in Lake Erie are not detrimental to sport and commercial fishing. Therefore, control for the purpose of reducing competition for prey fish with walleye is not warranted at this time.

Ohio, Ontario

Black shale source rocks and oil generation in the Cambrian and Ordovician of the central Appalachian Basin, USA

Nearly 600 million bbl of oil (MMBO) and 1 to 1.5 trillion ft 3 (tcf) of gas have been produced from Cambrian and Ordovician reservoirs (carbonate and sandstone) in the Ohio part of the Appalachian basin and on adjoining arches in Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario, Canada. Most of the oil and gas is concentrated in the giant Lima-Indiana field on the Findlay and Kankakee arches and in small fields distributed along the Knox unconformity. Based on new geochemical analyses of oils, potential source rocks, bitumen extracts, and previously published geochemical data, we conclude that the oils in both groups of fields originated from Middle and Upper Ordovician black shale (Utica and Antes shales) in the Appalachian basin. Moreover, we suggest that approximately 300 MMBO and many trillions of cubic feet of gas in the Lower Silurian Clinton sands of eastern Ohio originated in these same source rocks. Oils from the Cambrian and Ordovician reservoirs have similar saturated hydrocarbon compositions, biomarker distributions, and carbon isotope signatures. Regional variations in the oils are attributed to differences in thermal maturation rather than to differences in source. Total organic carbon content, genetic potential, regional extent, and bitumen extract geochemistry identify the black shale of the Utica and Antes shales as the most plausible source of the oils. Other Cambrian and Ordovician shale and carbonate units, such as the Wells Creek formation, which rests on the Knox unconformity, and the Rome Formation and Conasauga Group in the Rome trough, are considered to be only local petroleum sources. T max , CAI, and pyrolysis yields from drill-hole cuttings and core indicate that the Utica Shale in eastern and central Ohio is mature with respect to oil generation. Burial, thermal, and hydrocarbon-generation history models suggest that much of the oil was generated from the Utica-Antes source in the late Paleozoic during the Alleghanian orogeny. A pervasive fracture network controlled by basement tectonics aided in the distribution of oil from the source to the trap. This fracture network permitted oil to move laterally and stratigraphically downsection through eastward-dipping, impermeable carbonate sequences to carrier zones such as the Middle Ordovician Knox unconformity, and to reservoirs such as porous dolomite in the Middle Ordovician Trenton Limestone in the Lima-Indiana field. Some of the oil and gas from the Utica-Antes source escaped vertically through a partially fractured, leaky Upper Ordovician shale seal into widespread Lower Silurian sandstone reservoirs.

Ohio, Ontario