Al Steinman Invited Presenter in Beijing, China

Al Steinman, the Allen and Helen Hunting Director of the Annis Water Resources Institute, was invited by Professors Erik Jeppesen (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Zhengwen Lie (Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) to give the kick-off presentation at the First Forum on Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration and Health. Al spoke about the research his lab has been conducting on internal phosphorus loading in West Michigan lakes, as well as the upcoming book that he co-edited with Bryan Spears (UK Hydrology and Ecology Center, Edinburgh) on internal phosphorus loading in lakes from around the world. The Forum was held at the Sino-Danish Center in the University Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China on October 20th.

Katy Sheets grew up in West Michigan, and graduated from GVSU in 2018 with a B.S. in Biology and an emphasis in ecology and evolutionary biology. During her undergraduate summers she was a land management and research fellow at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute. Katy is working with Dr. Alan Steinman to study trophic interactions in a sand mine lake at Ottawa Sands County Park.  

Emily Neuman is from Becker, Minnesota.  She attended St. Cloud State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in ecology and field biology in 2019. While at SCSU she worked in a phytoplankton lab as a research assistant helping with a graduate student project, and performed her own experiment on dietary habitats of fishes using diatoms. She will be working in Dr. Sarah Hamsher’s lab on a bio-monitoring project dealing with an upcoming invasive species, Starry Stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa), and monitoring changes in benthic communities during control methods in Michigan lakes. 

AWRI was represented at the Undergraduate Research Fair held on the Allendale campus on October 1^st.  Sarah Hamsher, Jim McNair, Kevin Strychar, and Sean Woznicki were present at this event.

Cassidy Gilmore, graduate student working with Kevin Strychar, successfully passed her qualifying exam on October 15^th.

Paige Kleindl, graduate student working with Al Steinman, successfully defended her master’s thesis on October 25^th.  The title of her presentation was:  “Impacts of shoreline restoration and source of nutrient enrichment on macrophytes and epiphytic algal communities”.

Molly Lane, graduate student working with Rick Rediske, successfully defended her master’s thesis on October 24th.  The title of her presentation was:  “The implementation of qPCR beach monitoring methods: analysis of a multi lab validation study and the role of environmental parameters on a comparison of Colilert and qPCR methods”.

Charlyn Partridge attended the Michigan Coastal Dunes Symposium held in Lansing, MI on October 3^rd.

Charlyn Partridge attended a Microbial Metagenomics workshop from October 16^th–18^th.

Al Steinman was invited to be a panel member at the Margaret Sellers-Walker Distinguished Practitioner Lecture Series on the Opportunities and Challenges for Water in Michigan held at Loosemore Auditorium on the GVSU Grand Rapids campus on October 23^rd.

Janet Vail attended an outdoor and environmental education program summit hosted by MDNR in Traverse City on October 7^th.  Representatives from key environmental education programs in Michigan were present.

Janet Vail traveled to Berkeley, California to attend the meeting of the GLOBE U.S. Partner Forum and training featuring NASA staff on October 14^th – 15^th.

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 and former graduate student, now technical call-in, Anthony Weinke had an article published in Eos:
Biddanda, B. and A. Weinke**. 2019. Tracking triggers of harmful cyanobacterial blooms in an urbanized freshwater estuary (Featuring Graduate Student, Jasmine Mancuso). Postcards from the field. October 7, 2019. Eos, American Geophysical Union.  https://americangeophysicalunion.tumblr.com/tagged/postcards+from+the+field

Emily Kindervater and Al Steinman were co-authors of an article published in Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA):
Kindervater, E.**, and A.D. Steinman. 2019. Two-stage agricultural ditch sediments act as phosphorus sinks in West Michigan. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 55: 1183–1195. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12763

Carl Ruetz was a co-author on a manuscript accepted for publication in American Midland Naturalist. His former graduate students Greg Chorak and Jesse Wesolek are also co-authors.
Dumke, J.D., Chorak, G.M. **, Ruetz III, C.R., Thum, R.A., and J.N. Wesolek**.  In Press.  Identification of black bullhead (Ameiurus melas) and brown bullhead (A. nebulosus) from the western Great Lakes: recommendations for small individuals.  American Midland Naturalist.

Sean Woznicki was a co-author on a manuscript accepted for publication. 
J. S. Hernandez-Suarez, S.A. Woznicki, A. P. Nejadhashemi (2019). Multi-site watershed model calibration for evaluating best management practice effectiveness in reducing fecal pollution. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, DOI: 10.1080/10807039.2019.1680526

Presentations

(Presenter listed first)

AWRI was represented at the 2019 State of Lake Huron Conference, co-hosted by International Association for Great Lakes Research and Great Lakes Beach Association held at Saginaw Valley State University from October 9^th–11^th.  Rick Rediske, Brian Scull, and Molly Lane all attended this conference.  Molly presented a poster, which won “Best Student Poster”:
Lane, M.J.**, Rediske, R.R., McNair, J.N., Frobish, D.J., and B. Scull. Poster. Using survival analysis methods to analyze censored E. coli concentrations in recreational water.

Bopi Biddanda and members of his lab attended the Michigan Space Grant Consortium at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on October 12^th.  Bopi chaired the session on STEM Education and Outreach.  Jasmine Mancuso and Anthony Weinke also attended and presented:
Biddanda, B., Weinke, A.**, and S. Ruberg. Poster. Exploring extreme life in Lake Huron.
Mancuso, J.**, Weinke, A.** Stone, I.* Hamsher, S. and B. Biddanda. Poster. Exploring the dynamics of cyanobacterial blooms in Muskegon Lake, a model Great Lakes estuary.

Bopi Biddanda gave an invited presentation regarding his experience with Open Access Publishing at the GVSU Libraries sponsored event “Open GVSU Symposium” on October 24^th.

Alex Florian, S³ summer 2019 intern, and Alexis Hoskins, summer 2018 intern, who each worked in the Charlyn Partridge Lab, presented posters at the CMU Biological Research Symposium held on October 25^th.  Alex and Alexis were also selected to give a 2-minute lightening presentation about their poster.
Hoskins, A.* and C.G. Partridge. Poster. An analysis of the population of wild blue lupine (Lupinus perennis) in Central Michigan.
Florian, A.*, Smit, S., and C.G. Partridge. Alternative reproductive tactics in invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus): How fish increase fitness by doing less.

Charlyn Partridge presented on her Baby’s Breath research at the CLAS Alumni Board annual meeting on September 28^th.

Carl Ruetz attended the Joint Annual Conference of the American Fisheries Society and The Wildlife Society in Reno, Nevada on September 29^th-October 2^nd.  While at the conference, Carl attended a workshop titled an “Environmental DNA (eDNA) overview: sampling, techniques, and application” on September 29^th. Carl also gave an oral presentation on September 30^th:
Mock, A.**, Ruetz III, C.R., McNair, J.N., Mays, D., and A. Martell.  Oral.  Evaluating remote site incubators to support the reintroduction of Arctic grayling to Michigan.

Carl Ruetz attended the Annual Partner Meeting of the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative in Manistee, Michigan on October 8^th. He presented on Alan Mock’s thesis research (invited) at the meeting:
Mock, A.**, Ruetz III, C.R., McNair, J.N., Mays, D., and A. Martell.  Oral.  Evaluating remote site incubators.

Carl Ruetz gave a guest lecture in HNR 280, Water in a Changing World, titled “Great Lakes fishes: Invasive sea lamprey and native lake sturgeon” on October 10^th.

Al Steinman presented to the Muskegon Garden Club at the Muskegon Country Club, focusing on the knowns and unknowns around climate change, on October 15^th.

Al Steinman was invited to give the kick-off presentation at the First Forum on Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration and Health, held at the Sino-Danish Center in the University Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China on October 20th.

Amanda Syers, AWRI Science Education Specialist, presented information about the Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum Support (MEECS) units at the annual conference of the Michigan Earth Science Teachers Association held at AWRI on October 4^th.  Sherry Claflin, former AWRI science instructor, now teaching at White Cloud Schools, coordinated this event.

Janet Vail hosted the Environmental and Sustainability Studies students in Amanda Buday’s ENS 201 class when they visited AWRI for a tour and a presentation on October 2^nd.  Sean Woznicki and Rick Rediske also presented to this group.

Sean Woznicki gave a two-part guest lecture in HST100 on October 30^th and November 1^{st.  “}A history of dams and their ecological impacts”.

Molly Lane, graduate student in the Rediske lab, received the Best Poster award at 2019 State of Lake Huron Conference, held at Saginaw Valley State University.

Bopi Biddanda received a grant of $10,000 from the Charles Edison Fund to support innovative elements associated with the Muskegon Lake Buoy.

Al Steinman and Rick Rediske received a grant of $900 for studying potential contamination at the Johnny O. Harris Memorial Park from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County.

Sean Woznicki received a GVSU Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence Catalyst Grant of $7,000. “Quantifying fecal pollution in the Grand River Watershed using spatial stream network models”.

“Findings from Grand Valley State University yield new data on life science research” 
NewsRx Life Science Daily, October 9, 2019
Sarah Hamsher recently had an article published regarding the diversity of diatoms.

Linking Land and Lakes: Protecting the Great Lakes
WCML (PBS), October 16, 2019
Al Steinman was one of the researchers interviewed about threats to the Great Lakes.

New Findings in Water Science and Technology Described from Grand Valley State University (Measuring Streambank Erosion: A Comparison of Erosion Pins, Total Station, and Terrestrial Laser Scanner)
Ecology Daily News - October 24, 2019

The Green Room: PFAS Part IV-Prevention
WEMU - October 25, 2019
Rick Rediske was on a panel discussing the question “Can we prevent the spread of the PFAS reach by either disposing of them once manufactured, or by not making them in the first”.

“GVSU, Bridge Magazine will host town hall about water priorities”
GVNext News, October 29, 2019
The D.J. Angus, an AWRI research vessel, is pictured on Muskegon Lake.

LMC Events

Oct 1
The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership held a public meeting at the Lake Michigan Center.

Oct 3
The West Michigan Symphony held a strategic planning session at the Lake Michigan Center.

Oct 4
The annual conference of the Michigan Earth Science Teachers Association was held at the Lake Michigan Center.

Oct 7-11
Sixth grade students from Fruitport Middle School (Muskegon County) visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities and took a vessel cruise on the W.G. Jackson.

Oct 11
Seminar Speaker: Dr. Jacques Finlay, Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, presented: “Small solutions to big problems: understanding the role of wetlands and ponds for restoring water quality in Minnesota”

Oct 15
Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth grade students from the Epic Home School Academy (Barry County) visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities and took a vessel cruise on the W.G. Jackson.

Oct 16
The Grand Haven Chamber of Commerce held their “Lakeshore Youth Program” at the Lake Michigan Center.

Oct 21, 24 & 28
The City of Muskegon held training sessions for their staff at the Lake Michigan Center.

Oct 28
Students from the West Michigan Christian High School visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for a presentation.