AWRI SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD

Shortly after AWRI moved to Muskegon in 2001, we formed an external Science Advisory Board (SAB), whose charge is to provide a general evaluation of science, programmatic directions, future needs, and strengths and weaknesses at AWRI. Their prior reports are available on the AWRI website at https://www.gvsu.edu/wri/science-advisory-board-25.htm

Although due to COVID, we had to push the SAB’s triennial review of AWRI back one year.  We were able to hold virtual, half-day meetings on March 3 and 5.  This was their 9th review of AWRI’s programs (and the first one not held in-person), providing valuable advice.  Unfortunately, Dr. Gary Lamberti was unable to join us this year due to a conflict. Although it will be several weeks before we receive their formal report, the general feedback from the SAB was very positive.  We thank our dedicated SAB members (pictured) for their time and input.

 

LMC Activities

AWRI’s Science Advisory Board met virtually on March 3rd and 5th. SAB members include Dr. Carol Johnston (South Dakota State Univ.), Dr. Harvey Bootsma (Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and Jennifer Haverkamp (Univ. of Michigan).  Dr. Gary Lamberti (Univ. of Notre Dame) did not participate this year due to a conflict. 

Sarah Hamsher volunteered as an interviewer for the Virtual Mock MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews) held by the CLAS Advising Center on March 8^th.

Sarah Hamsher and Sean Woznicki participated as event supervisors for the virtual regional Science Olympiad Water Quality C competition held March 15^th – 20^th. They developed an activity and an exam for their event.

Jim McNair has been participating in weekly Zoom meetings with Molly Lane, Rick Rediske, scientists from EGLE, Michigan State University, and several other Michigan universities regarding a new project dealing with statistical analysis and interpretation of qPCR beach-monitoring data.

Carl Ruetz virtually attended the annual meeting of the Michigan Chapter of the American Fisheries Society on March 16^th and 17^th.

Carl Ruetz attended the virtual joint meeting of the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership’s habitat committee and the Muskegon River Watershed Assembly’s resource committee on March 23^rd.

Rick Rediske attended the PFAS Data Repository Group of the Green Science Policy Council on March 9^th.

Rick Rediske participated in a meeting of the Rockford Community Advisory Group on March 18^th and lead the discussion on the Feasibility Study for the House Street Dump Site.

Al Steinman has been trained to administer the COVID antigen testing to GVSU staff and students in the Lakeshore area. He is planning to offer testing at the LMC once a week, on varying days and various times, to better accommodate current staggered schedules.

Al Steinman and Emily Kindervater held a virtual meeting with the steering committee for their upcoming CIGLR-funded summit on groundwater in Michigan, to be held June 3^rd and 4^th (virtually).

Al Steinman was interviewed by Alison Passejna for her high school project on water quality. Alison is a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Bloomington Hills.

Al Steinman was interviewed regarding the revision of the "Building Sustainable Communities" course for the MPA program on March 29th.

Al Steinman attended board and committee meetings for the West Michigan Symphony and Goodwill Industries of West Michigan.

Al Steinman attended the Climate-Governance Variability in the Great Lakes Virtual Workshop on March 25^th and 26^th. He is a member of the steering committee for this NSF-funded RCN.

Al Steinman attended virtually the Great Lakes Advisory Board public meeting on March 30^th and March 31^st. Al is a member of the GLAB, serving on the nutrient and invasive species working groups. 

Amanda Syers is a middle school water quality event supervisor for the Region 12 Michigan Science Olympiad.

Amanda Syers is mentoring a GVSU student who is developing lesson plans for the MiRCLE project; this is funded by Michigan Space Grant. The final MiRCLE webinars were held on March 10th and March 24th. 

Janet Vail continues to work with the planning committee for the 2021 virtual Project WET conference.

Janet Vail and Amanda Syers have been attending webinars on Project WET’s new programs and virtual learning training opportunities.

Janet Vail attended the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership meeting on March 2nd.

Janet Vail attended the 2021 Great Lakes Conference hosted by Michigan State University on March 9th.

Janet Vail and Amanda Syers participated in the Michigan Environmental Educators Training Bureau meeting on March 11th. This group was updated on integrating the EE materials guidelines into Project WET workshops.

Janet Vail met with the Groundswell professional development committee and attended a Groundswell event on indigenous people on March 16th.

Sean Woznicki’s graduate student, Jon Walt, submitted an abstract which was accepted for presenting at the International Association for Landscape Ecology-North America chapter annual conference to be held virtually from April 12^th-16^th.

Sean Woznicki met with the BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad, Serbia to discuss potential collaboration on a NASA ROSES proposal for the land cover - land use change program.

Sean Woznicki met with Matthew Gammans, assistant professor of agricultural economics at MSU, to discuss collaboration on a NASA ROSES proposal.

Sean Woznicki met with USGS colleagues on March 4^th regarding their draft manuscript, tentatively titled: Lessons learned from 15 years of monitoring suburban development with watershed-scale green stormwater infrastructure in Clarksburg, Maryland.

Sean Woznicki met with the MSU Center for Intelligent Water Resources Engineering to discuss potential future collaboration on March 8^th; he was invited as an affiliate member.

Presentations and Publications

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 was lead author of an article in the GVSU Regional Math & Science newsletter Interchange:
Biddanda, B., A. Weinke, J. Mancuso**, D. Dila, M. Villar-Argaiz, J. Medina-Sanchez, J. Gonzalez-Olalla and P. Carrillo. 2021. Small things considered: How very tiny housekeepers run our very big hydrosphere. Interchange, Connections for the STEM Classroom, March 2021.

Bopi Biddanda, Anthony Weinke, and undergraduate student Ian Stone were co-authors of an article published in Eos:
Hartmeyer, P., S. Gandulla, I. Stone*, A. Weinke, and B. Biddanda. 2021. A glimpse of the otherworldly “lakescape” at the bottom of the Middle Island Sinkhole in Lake Huron. Eos, American Geophysical Union, March 2021 p. 49. https://eos.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/EOS_MAR21.pdf

 

Presentations - (Presenter listed first)

AWRI was represented at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters Conference (Virtual) on March 12th. Presentations with AWRI authors and/or co-authors included:
Alexis Porter** and Richard Rediske. Investigation of Escherichia coli Coliform contamination in the Pigeon River Watershed.
Margaret Brenneman* and Richard Rediske. Investigation of Escherichia coli contamination in Little Black Creek.
Rahman, S., A. Schian, (Presenters & Authors), F. Siddiqui, N. Pokhrel, A. Babu, T. Goralski, M. Lane, R. Rediske, P.-L. Tsou, & S. Blackman. Wastewater detection of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks via Digital Droplet PCR on campus dorms.

Megan Mader, AWRI graduate student working with Carl Ruetz, gave a virtual oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Michigan Chapter of the American Fisheries Society on March 16^th.
Mader, M.**, C.R. Ruetz III, and S. Woznicki. Oral. Fish community response to shoreline structure and latitudinal gradient in drowned river mouths of eastern Lake Michigan.

Charlyn Partridge gave a virtual presentation at Wilfred Laurier University on March 5^th for their virtual seminar series. Her presentation was titled: Petite and perilous: Combining herbarium and genetic data to explore the successful invasion of baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) across North America.

Carl Ruetz gave a virtual presentation at the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership monthly meeting on March 2^nd. His presentation was titled: Muskegon Lake AOC fisheries monitoring.

Al Steinman presented and participated in a panel sponsored by FLOW (For Love of Water) on groundwater on March 10^th.

Al Steinman gave a virtual presentation to HASP (Hope Academy of Senior Professionals) on March 22^nd. His presentation was titled: Emerging Water Issues that Face Our Planet.

Janet Vail and Amanda Syers presented a session at the virtual Michigan Science Teachers Association conference on March 6^th. The presentation was titled: Human impacts: Data rich lessons for middle school.

Sean Woznicki was the featured speaker at the GVSU Michigan Resources on Climate and Land Change Education (MiRCLE) event on February 17^th. His presentation was titled: Mapping the benefits: Teaching ecosystem services with EnviroAtlas.

Grants, Contracts, Awards, and Recognition

GRANTS & CONTRACTS

Charlyn Partridge was awarded a summer research grant to Pierce Cedar Creek Institute in collaboration with the Gun Lake Tribe to continue some of their wild rice genetics work.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

There were no awards or recognitions for this issue.  Check again next month!

AWRI News and Events

AWRI IN THE NEWS

“Wolverine ‘phyto’ PFAS cleanup plan close to doing nothing, says expert”
MLive, March 19, 2021
Rick was interviewed regarding his work with the PFAS issue in Rockford, Michigan.

Al Steinman was interviewed for the Great Lakes Echo on Lake Michigan, March 24, 2021.

 

LMC EVENTS

There were no events held at the LMC this month.