#214 May 2021
AWRI SUMMER STUDENT INTERNS
One of the joys of summer at AWRI is our student intern program. This summer, we welcome 12 student interns to the Institute. These students are funded by a variety of sources and work with different principal investigators.
Five interns are being funded through the R.B. Annis Foundation: Maggie Brenneman will be working with Rick Rediske; Janelle Cook will be working with Bopi Biddanda; Brendan May will be working with Carl Ruetz; Carlin Moore will be working with Charlyn Partridge; and Anna Watson will be working with Janet Vail.
Two interns are being funded through the AWRI Undergraduate Internship: Katelyn Anderson will be working with Kevin Strychar and Michael Stefanou will be working with Sean Woznicki.
One intern is being funded through the Herbert L. VanderMey Endowment: Brooke Keck (not pictured), will be working with Sarah Hamsher.
Four additional interns will be working at AWRI this summer, funded through various research projects: Elliot Fair will be working with Charlyn Partridge funded by an award Charlyn received from The Pierce Cedar Creek Institute; Jacquelyn Molloseau and Taylor Suttorp will be working with Al Steinman funded through the Allen and Helen Hunting Research and Innovation Fund; and Javier Guillen (not pictured), will be working with Bopi Biddanda funded through the GVSU Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence.
A special welcome to all of these bright, young researchers for their hard work and dedication, and a heartfelt thank you to our generous and supportive funders!
LMC Activities
Bopi Biddanda was a session co-chair at the virtual IAGLR Conference on May 20th. The session was titled: “Running out of Oxygen”.
The Biddanda Lab deployed the Muskegon Lake Observatory buoy, and are working on getting its sensor readings reported online.
The Biddanda Lab participated in the Muskegon Lake Monitoring spring cruise, and are scheduling field work in Lake Huron for this summer.
Jim McNair participated in weekly Zoom meetings with Molly Lane, Rick Rediske, and scientists from US EPA, Michigan EGLE, Michigan State University, and several other Michigan universities regarding a new project dealing with statistical analysis and interpretation of qPCR beach-monitoring data.
Charlyn Partridge continues to attend weekly Zoom meetings to discuss both the COVID wastewater project and the summer beach sampling project.
Rick Rediske was appointed to the Community Advisory Work Group of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART).
Rick Rediske participated in a meeting of the Rockford Community Advisory Group on May 21st and led the discussion on the Tannery Interceptor and Groundwater Treatment System Plan.
Al Steinman has been invited to be a member of the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress at the National Academy of Sciences.
Al Steinman attended Board meetings of the West Michigan Symphony and Goodwill International of West Michigan.
Al Steinman has participated in meetings to help organize the AOC conference in Muskegon in September 2021 and the Joint Aquatic Sciences Conference in Grand Rapids in May 2022.
Kevin Strychar was a mentor for graduate student Jennifer Kovach (primary advisor, Jen Moore, GVSU Biology), who recently successfully defended and submitted her thesis. She has begun to prepare a chapter from her thesis for manuscript submission.
Janet Vail gave the welcoming address at the West Michigan Clean Air Coalition annual conference held virtually on May 7th.
Janet Vail attended a NAML Education Committee webinar on May 7th on the OBFS Virtual Field Project. She also attended a meeting of the NAML Education Committee.
Janet Vail attended the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership meeting on May 4th and the Muskegon Environmental Coordinating Council meeting on May 11th.
Janet Vail is working with the Groundswell Professional Development Committee to organize and present at the Groundswell Summer Institute to be held in August.
Janet Vail is on the planning committee for the Project WET Virtual Annual Conference to be held in August.
Janet Vail and Amanda Syers attended Project WET and Environmental Education Guidelines webinars.
Sean Woznicki attended a 2-day grant writing seminar hosted by GVSU on May 5th and 6th.
Sean Woznicki had a meeting on May 7th with a representative from the EPA regarding hosting/displaying data from a manuscript titled “Sediment retention by natural landscapes in the conterminous United States” (submitted to Science of the Total Environment) on the EPA EnviroAtlas website.
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 ***.
Presentations - (Presenter listed first):
Bopi Biddanda gave a presentation at the 64th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, IAGLR on May 20th. The title of his presentation was “Deep, dark and deoxygenated: Exploring multi-annual hypolimnetic trends in a Great Lakes estuary”. Co-authors were Biddanda lab technicians Ian Stone and Anthony Weinke.
Tyler Harman, graduate student who worked with Kevin Strychar, presented a poster at the Temperate Coral 2021 conference held virtually on May 18th. Kevin attended the conference and was able to view the poster and others using an Avatar to “walk” from poster to poster.
Harman, T.E.**, K.B. Strychar, D. Barshis, S.E. Hamsher, and B. Hauff-Salas. Poster. Analysis of innate immunity and thermal stress responses in the temperate coral, Astrangia poculata
Rick Rediske gave a virtual presentation titled “Plankton & algae issues related to drinking water treatment” for the spring regional meeting of the Michigan Chapter of the American Water Works Association on April 28th.
Carl Ruetz and his graduate student Megan Mader virtually attended the 64th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research held May 17th – 21st. They both gave presentations at the conference.
Ruetz, C.R., T. Hook, D. Clapp, G. Chorak**, T. Senegal, and G. Bowen. Oral. Movement patterns of Yellow Perch in eastern Lake Michigan: implications for harvest. May 19.
Mader, M.M.**, C.R. Ruetz, S. Woznicki, and H. Kuhnle*. Oral. Water quality and land cover in Lake Michigan drowned river mouths. May 19.
Katy Sheets and Mike Hassett in the Steinman lab virtually attended the Annual Meeting of the Society for Freshwater Science May 20th—May 25th. They both gave presentations.
Sheets, K.** and A.D. Steinman. Poster. Mining matters: predation pressure and water quality in a young sand mine lake.
Hassett, M.C., M.E. Oudsema, E.A. Kindervater, B.A. Biddanda, and A.D. Steinman Oral. Phosphorus monitoring and internal loading inform delisting for Muskegon Lake area of concern.
Al Steinman gave a kickoff presentation (virtual) at the inaugural meeting of the Michigan Groundwater Table on May 5th. The title of his presentation was “Groundwater under threat: Understanding the how, why, when and where”.
Publications:
Bopi Biddanda has an article accepted to Nature Geosciences:
J.M. Klatt, A. Chennu, B.K. Arbic, B.A. Biddanda, and G.J. Dick. In Press. Possible link between Earth’s rotation rate and oxygenation. Nature Geosciences.
Sarah Hamsher was a co-author of an article accepted to the journal Fottea:
Hamsher, S.E., J.P. Kociolek, S.A. Spaulding, and A.I. Saleh. In Press. Taxonomy and nomenclature of some members within the Obtusae section of Nitzschia Hassall (Bacillariophyceae) including the descriptions of two new species. Fottea.
Dan Myers, graduate student who worked with Rick Rediske, had a manuscript from his thesis work accepted to Ecological Processes:
Myers, D.***, R. Rediske, J. McNair, A. Parker, and W. Ogilvie. Relating environmental variables with aquatic community structure in an agricultural/urban coldwater stream. Ecological Processes.
Congratulations to Dan for getting all three of his thesis chapters published!
Charlyn Partridge is co-author of a manuscript accepted to Integrative and Comparative Biology:
Thompson C.L., M. Alberti, S. Barve, F.U. Battistuzzi, J.L. Drake, G.C. Goncalves, L. Govaert, C. Partridge, and Y. Yang. In Press. Back to the future: Reintegrating biology to understand how past eco-evolutionary change can predict future outcomes. Integrative and Comparative Biology.
Rick Rediske and Al Steinman were co-authors of an article recently published in the journal Toxics:
Scott, J.W., K.G. Gunderson, L.A. Green, R.R. Rediske, and A.D. Steinman. 2021. Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) associated with microplastics in a lake environment. Toxics 9, 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9050106
Grants, Contracts, Awards, and Recognition
GRANTS & CONTRACTS
Rick Rediske received a grant for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater testing in the amount of $1,732,225. This grant runs from 6/1/2021 - 7/31/2023.
Carl Ruetz is the Principal Investigator on a sub-award GVSU-AWRI received in the amount of $245,000 covering the years 2021-2025, as part of an EPA funded Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program led by Don Uzarski at CMU.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Al Steinman was officially inducted as a Fellow of the Society for Freshwater Science at the Annual Meeting on May 24.
AWRI News and Events
AWRI IN THE NEWS
There are no news or events featured this month.
LMC EVENTS
There were no events held at the LMC this month.