Al’s Sabbatical

Al Steinman spent part of his sabbatical last Fall in Rosslyn, Scotland working at the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).  His main objective was to work on a book that he is writing and co-editing with Dr. Bryan Spears, who works at CEH.  The title of the book is “Internal Phosphorus Loading: Causes, Case Studies, and Management”, and is being published by J. Ross Publishers. 

In addition to working on the book, Al also gave several lectures at CEH, and was able to visit several Scottish reservoirs, as well as Loch Leven, famous for the castle where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned.  Oh, he also visited a few pubs and a very exciting rugby match between South Africa and Scotland, with 75,000 of his closest pals!

The following AWRI faculty interviewed student applicants for the Awards of Distinction held on campus:  Bopi Biddanda; Sarah Hamsher; Jim McNair; and Charlyn Partridge. 

Bopi Biddanda accepted an invitation to serve on the Advisory Board of the newly established NIH & NSF-funded Lake Erie Center for Freshwaters and Human Health at Bowling Green State University.

Bopi Biddanda will be serving as a Team Leader for Water Field Trips (Water Wanderings) under the Making Waves initiative of Provost Cimitile.

Rick Rediske will be serving as a Team Leader for Water & Public Health under the Making Waves initiative of Provost Cimitile.

Janet Vail is now the Vice Chair of the West Michigan Clean Air Coalition.

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

Hailee Leimbach-Maus, recent graduate student who worked with Charlyn Partridge, had her first manuscript published in December:
Leimbach-Maus H.**, Parks S.R., and Partridge C.G. 2018. Development of microsatellite markers for invasive baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) populations. Applications in Plant Sciences. 6(12): e1203. doi: 10.1002/aps3.1203

Al Steinman is a co-author of a paper that was part of the GLEAM II project led by UM, which was accepted to Ecological Indicators:
Smith, S.D.P., Bunnell, D.B., Burton Jr., G.A., Ciborowski, J.J.H., Davidson, A.D., Dickinson, D.E., Eaton, L.A., Esselman, P.C., Evans, M.A., Kashian, D.R., Manning, N.F., McIntyre, P.B., Nalepa, T.F., Pérez-Fuentetaja, A., Steinman, A.D., Uzarski, D.G., Allan, J.D. In Press. Evidence for interactions among environmental stressors in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Ecological Indicators.

Kevin Strychar was lead author of a book chapter accepted for publication:
Strychar K.B. and P.W. Sammarco.  In Press.  Section I: Climate change.  Chapter 1. An overview with discussions on freshwater and marine ecosystems in North America.  In: Climate change and non-infectious fish disorders.  Editors: Patrick TK Woo and George K Iwama.  CAB International (www.cabi.org), Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

Kevin Strychar was a co-author of a paper accepted to Marine Biology:
Haslun J.A., B. Hauff-Salas, K.B. Strychar, P. Ostrom, and J.M. Cervino.  2018.  Biotic stress contributes to seawater temperature induced stress in a site-specific manner for Porites asteroides.  Marine Biology.  165:160, 159-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-018-3414-z

Presentations

(Presenter listed first)

Charlyn Partridge co-presented with a representative from The Nature Conservancy at a Stewardship Network meeting in Lansing on January 11^th.

Rick Rediske gave a presentation on the topic of PFAS at Pfizer on January 23^rd.  This was a joint program with the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Rick Rediske was invited to participate on a PFAS Panel discussion at University of Michigan on January 31^st.

Al Steinman gave several presentations about the Great Lakes and AWRI while in Florida with the University Development team visiting Florida donors and alumni the week of January 28^th.

Kevin Strychar was a guest lecturer for Bruce Ostrom’s class on January 22^nd.  He spoke about deep sea corals.

Charlyn Partridge was awarded a CIGLR summer fellow.  This student will study alternative reproductive tactics in Round Gobies across drowned river-mouth systems.

Al Steinman has a project funded by MDARD for the Project Clarity slag study to reduce phosphorus concentrations, in the amount of $55,000.

“United States: Peters to convene field summit on PFAS contamination in Michigan”
Al Bawaba Business, December 7, 2018
Rick Rediske is mentioned as being a member of the panel for this senate hearing convened by U.S. Senator Gary Peters.

“Restoration Center Great Lakes Project wins award for excellence”
OHC (Office of Habitat Conservation) Highlights: Week of December 3, 2018
Rick Rediske was an expert witness regarding PFAS at a Senate subcommittee field summit convened by U.S. Senator Gary Peters.

“Michigan Ag grants funds for state fertilizer research work”
Farm World, January 9, 2019
AWRI is a partner with the Holland based Outdoor Discovery Center to evaluate the effectiveness of iron slag filters for safely and significantly reducing nutrient runoff from representative agricultural fields in the Macatawa watershed.

LMC Events

Dec 11
The Grand Haven Chamber of Commerce held their “Lakeshore Youth Program” at the Lake Michigan Center.

Jan 3
A troop of 3^rd grade Girl Scouts visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for a program.

Jan 11
Seminar Speaker: Dr. Dan O’Keefe, Southwest District Extension Educator for MSU Michigan Sea Grant presented: “Lessons learned from a decade of engaging stakeholders in Great Lakes fisheries management”