Director of GVSU Annis Water Resources Institute Receives National Award

Muskegon's Alan Steinman, director of Grand Valley State University's Annis Water Resources Institute, has been selected to receive a national award from the National Garden Clubs, Inc. They are giving Steinman the Award of Excellence for 2017, its highest achievement award, because of his efforts to provide environmental responsibility made him deserving of the award.

He'll accept the award this spring at the group's annual banquet in Richmond, Va., where he has been asked to make remarks. Al said that he is incredibly honored and humbled by the award.

Kim Oldenborg, graduate student working with Al Steinman, had her thesis proposal committee meeting on February 24.

Rick Rediske and Janet Vail traveled to Lansing on February 23 to attend a planning meeting for the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Plankton-Algae course to be held at AWRI in August.

Janet Vail attended a West Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative dinner on February 15.  She also continues to work with Groundswell GLSI on their professional development for teachers and on their advisory council.

AWRI staff are bolded, undergraduate students are denoted with a single asterisk*, graduate students are denoted with two asterisks**, and post-doc researchers are donated with three asterisks ***.

Publications

Bopi Biddanda is a co-author of an article accepted to Frontiers:
Sharrar, A., B. Flood, J. Bailey, D. Jones, B. Biddanda, S. Ruberg, D. Marcus, and G. Dick. In Press. Novel large sulfur bacteria in the metagenomes of groundwater-fed chemosynthetic microbial mats in the Lake Huron basin. Frontiers Extreme Environments.

Delilah Clement, graduate student who worked with Al Steinman, has an article based on her thesis work, published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research:
Clement, D.R.** and A.D. Steinman. 2017. Phosphorus loading and ecological impacts from agricultural tile drains in a west Michigan watershed. Journal of Great Lakes Research 43: 50-58. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2016.10.016

Carl Ruetz and Al Steinman are both co-authors of chapters in the new edition of Methods in Stream Ecology, that is now in publication.
Moerke, A.H., C.R. Ruetz, III, T.N. Simon, and C.M. Pringle. 2017. Macroconsumer-Resource Interactions. Pages 399-412. In: Methods in Stream Ecology. Vol 1 (3^rd Ed.) R. Hauer and G. Lamberti (editors). Academic Press.
Steinman, A.D., G.A. Lamberti, P. Leavitt, and D.G. Uzarski. 2017. Biomass and pigments of benthic algae. Pages 223-241. In: Methods in Stream Ecology. Vol 1 (3^rd Ed.) R. Hauer and G. Lamberti (editors). Academic Press.

Al Steinman is the lead author of a manuscript, with 26 co-authors, accepted to Journal of Great Lakes Research:
Steinman, A.D., Cardinale, B.J., Munns, W.R., Ogdahl, M.E. et al. 2017. Ecosystem services in the Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research. DOI 10.1016/j.jglr.2017.02.004

Kevin Strychar is a co-author, with two of his former PhD students, of a manuscript accepted to PLoS ONE:
Salas, B.H.***, J.A. Haslun***, K.B. Strychar, P.H. Ostrom, J.M. Cervino. 2017. Site-specific variation in gene expression from Symbiodinium spp. associated with offshore and inshore Porites astreoides in the Lower Florida Keys is lost with bleaching and disease stress. PLoS ONE, PONE-D-16-28059

Presentations

(Presenter listed first)

AWRI was represented at the Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference held in Lincoln, Nebraska from February 5 – 8.  Nathaniel Akey and Justin Wegner, both graduate students working with Mark Luttenton, attended and presented at the conference:
Akey, N.** and M. Luttenton. Poster. Initial assessment of rate of cercariae infections in host snail populations.
Wegner, J.** and M. Luttenton. Oral. Introduction of New Zealand mudsnails into the Upper Midwest; range expansion and aquatic threat.

Al Steinman gave a public presentation about groundwater in Montague on February 20.

Al Steinman presented to the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development on the Integrated Watershed Commission project in Lansing on February 22.

Janet Vail held a Project WET training at AWRI on February 17.  Educators from Detroit, Lake City, and Sault St. Marie were in attendance.

Emily Kindervater, graduate student working with Al Steinman, gave a presentation at the “3-Minute Thesis Competition” presentation event hosted by The Graduate School on February 22.  Emily tied for second place in the competition for her presentation titled: “Phosphorus Retention in West Michigan Two-stage Agricultural Ditches”.

Bopi Biddanda received a $25,000 Graduate Fellowship through University of Michigan-Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research for the 2017-18 year to support his graduate student, Katie Knapp.  The title of the proposal is “Breath of an ecosystem: quantifying a lake’s variable carbon cycle in time and space”.

Carl Ruetz has a contract with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in the amount of $15,000 to study the use of remote site egg incubators in tributaries of the Manistee River.  This work will support the initiative to re-introduce Arctic grayling to the state.

AWRI In the News

“The Next Chapter: it could be YOU on the water!”
InterChange: a newsletter of the GVSU Regional Math and Science Center, February 2017
The article is recruiting retired, or soon to be retired teachers to work as Science Instructors onboard the research vessels D.J. Angus and/or W.G. Jackson.

“AWRI director to present watershed project to state officials”
GVNext, February 1, 2017
Al Steinman will be speaking about the Integrated Watershed Commission Project at a meeting of state agriculture commissioners on February 22.

“Director of GVSU water institute receives national award for work”
MLive.com, February 5, 2017
Al Steinman will accept the “Award of Excellence” from National Garden Clubs, Inc. at their annual banquet in Richmond, Virginia in April.
Also carried by DolphinSix.com

“Living sustainably: working on Lake Mac’s reputation”
Holland Sentinel.com, February 6, 2017
The article is about the recent annual monitoring dashboard for Lake Macatawa that AWRI staff produced and submitted to Project Clarity.

 “GVSU water institute chief honored by national group: National Garden Clubs bestows Award of Excellence.”
Muskegon Chronicle, February 7, 2017
Al Steinman will accept the “Award of Excellence” from National Garden Clubs, Inc. at their annual banquet in Richmond, Virginia in April.

“Oakland University receives grant to help monitor invasive species in state’s rivers, streams”
Patch.com, February 8, 2017
Mark Luttenton and former AWRI graduate student Kristin Nelson Thomas are mentioned as partners in this project.

“Water Quality Dashboard”
The-macc.org, (monthly newsletter of the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council), February 2017
AWRI recently released their 2016 Lake Macatawa dashboard report.  This report summarizes water quality monitoring data collected in Lake Macatawa in 2016.

LMC Events

Feb 7
The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership held a public meeting at the Lake Michigan Center.

Feb 10
Seminar Speaker: Dr. Katherine Greenwald, Associate Professor of Biology at Eastern Michigan University, presented:  "Michigan's amazing "gene thieves": Evolution and ecology of unisexual (all female) Ambystoma salamanders"