AWRI WELCOMES NEW EDUCATION SPECIALIST

Christina Catanese joined GVSU this summer as AWRI’s new Education Specialist. Her knowledge and experience in hydrology, environmental science and education, and art will be used to oversee AWRI’s education and outreach programs, including vessel-based and K-12 classroom education programs. 

Water has been a driving force in her professional life, starting with her academic training. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, earning a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science and a M.S. in Applied Geosciences. Her undergraduate coursework and thesis focused on transboundary watershed policy and politics, while her master’s concentration in hydrogeology afforded a more technical foundation of how water moves through the world, alongside her thesis research on stormwater impacts on the geomorphology of urban streams. Since this time, she has worked in the government sector (EPA’s regional office in Philadelphia) and nonprofit leadership, accumulating years of science communication and teaching experience in informal education settings.

Most recently, she has drawn from her science foundations to integrate the arts into environmental education efforts and programs. For over six years, she worked at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (Philadelphia’s oldest and largest nature center) to present indoor and outdoor contemporary art exhibitions that interpreted environmental science and engaged with the land to inspire more meaningful connections between people and nature. As an artist herself, she explores how dance can embody ecological processes and science information.

 

Faculty and Staff Activities

Bopi Biddanda participated in the NASA annual virtual site visit to Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) June 17^th; he is GVSU’s Affiliate Representative to MSGC.

Christina Catanese attended a Place-Based Project WET workshop hosted by the Lower Grand River Organization of Watersheds (LGROW) at the Wittenbach Wege Agriscience Center in Lowell on June 17^th.

Christina Catanese participated in the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station’s K-12 Partnership Summer Institute on June 22^nd – 24^th. This year the annual training for teachers was focused on art and science; Christina co-led a plenary session titled “Moving field guide: A kinesthetic approach to environmental education,” and a concurrent session titled “Dancing your environment,” both covering tools to integrate movement into place-based learning at schools.

Christina Catanese and Janet Vail attended a Women Water Partners event on June 23^rd at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve.

Sarah Hamsher participated in the virtual Board of Directors meeting for the International Phycological Society on June 11^th.

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.

Richard Rediske attended the Community Advisory Work Group of the Michigan PFAS Action Team (MPART) on June 8^th.

Richard Rediske participated in a meeting of the Rockford Community Advisory Group on June 17^st and lead the discussion on the Groundwater Surface Water Interface report by Wolverine Worldwide.

Carl Ruetz and other members of his lab participated in a field training as part of the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program in Saginaw Bay on June 8^th – 9^th.

Carl Ruetz attended a virtual workshop titled “Inclusive mentoring in undergraduate research” on June 10^th.

Carl Ruetz and graduate student Nick Vander Stelt attended the virtual annual meeting of the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative on June 29^th. Nick gave an update on his selection of field sites in tributaries of the Boardman River.

Al Steinman led a CIGLR-funded Groundwater Summit on June 3^rd and 4^th. The summit was titled: Groundwater in Crisis? Addressing Groundwater Challenges in Michigan as a Template for the Great Lakes, and included 27 groundwater experts from around the region. They are in the process of writing a white paper on the results from the Summit.

Al Steinman was a panel member on June 10^th for a virtual meeting of journalists led by the Institute of Journalism and Natural Resources, focused on “Success Story: The Delisting of Muskegon's Area of Concern”.

Al Steinman was interviewed on June 10^th by Beata Fiszer of Indiana-Illinois Sea Grant; she is providing outreach on how remediation and restoration are leading to community revitalization.

Al Steinman was an invited panelist on June 15^th and 16^th for NOAA’s Science Collaborative Full Proposal Review Panel Meeting, which reviewed full proposals from the NERRS across the country.

Al Steinman was interviewed on June 18^th by Sam Tucker for the GRCC newspaper on groundwater issues in Michigan.

Al Steinman attended virtual meetings for the AOC conference in Muskegon in September and the JASM22 meeting in Grand Rapids next May.

Al Steinman attended virtual meetings of the nutrient and aquatic invasive species work groups for the Great Lakes Advisory Board; these work groups are finalizing their responses to EPA’s charge questions for the Public Meeting scheduled in August.

Al Steinman attended a Goodwill Board meeting on June 21^st.

Amanda Syers and Janet Vail had a virtual meeting with the Inland Seas education coordinator and a team of students from the University of Michigan on June 9^th. The students are working on a project evaluating the use of student-collected water quality data.

Janet Vail attended the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership meeting on June 1^st.

Janet Vail attended a virtual workshop on Data Puzzles – Analyzing Authentic Data on June 3^rd—4^th. The workshop focused on lesson plan development linking scientists with teachers.

Janet Vail completed an Aquatic WILD training workshop on June 7^th.

Janet Vail facilitated the West Michigan Clean Air Coalition quarterly meeting on June 25^th.

Janet Vail and Amanda Syers attended a virtual Earth Partnership for Schools workshop on June 28^th – July 2^nd. The workshop focused on indigenous people.

Sean Woznicki has accepted an invitation to join the Editorial Board for the journal Water.

Sean Woznicki met with USGS and Colorado State University colleagues on June 3^rd to finalize a manuscript titled “Lessons learned from twenty years of monitoring suburban development with distributed stormwater management in Clarksburg, Maryland”. This will be submitted to Freshwater Science by June 30^th.

 

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

Al Steinman gave a virtual presentation on June 15^th to the Michigan Inland Lake Partnership on results from the muck pellet project. The title of his presentation was: “Assessment of the Effectiveness of Muck-Digesting Bacterial Pellets”; Emily Kindervater was a co-author.

Al Steinman presented on June 28^th the recent results from Church Lake sampling to the Church Lake Homeowners Association, who is funding a monitoring project. 

Kevin Strychar is a co-author of two abstracts accepted to the 14^th International Coral Reef Symposium:
Ducroiset, A., S. Cirillo, B. Hauff-Salas, T. Goreau, T.E. Harman**, K.B. Strychar, R. Hayes, J.U. Cervino, and K. Hughen. 2021. Varied responses of symbiotic and planktonic dinoflagellates exposed to elevated temperature and Roundup herbicide leading to cell degeneration. 14^th International Coral Reef Symposium. July 19-23, 2021. Virtual.

Harman T.E.**, K.B. Strychar, D. Barshis, S.E. Hamsher, and B. Hauff-Salas. Analysis of innate immunity and thermal stress responses in the temperate coral, Astrangia poculata. 14th International Coral Reef Symposium. July 19-23, 2021. Virtual.

Anna Watson, summer intern working with the Outreach & Education staff, presented information about an Environmental Studies and Sustainability project at WMEAC’s Community Conversations on Climate Change: Nature-Based Solutions webinar on June 24^th.

PUBLICATIONS

Bopi Biddanda is a co-author of an article accepted to the journal Nature Geosciences:
Klatt, J.M. 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.

Dan Myers, graduate student who worked with Rick Rediske, had the third manuscript from his thesis published in Ecological Processes. Rick Rediske and Jim McNair are co-authors:
Myers, D.T.L.***, R.R. Rediske, J.N. McNair, A.D. Parker, and E.W. Ogilvie. 2021. Relating environmental variables with aquatic community structure in an agricultural/urban coldwater stream. Ecological Processes 10, 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-021-00312-6.

Grants, Contracts, Awards, and Recognition

GRANTS & CONTRACTS

No new grants & contracts this month.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

No awards or recognitions this month.

AWRI News and Events

AWRI IN THE NEWS

“Below aging U.S. dams: a potential toxic calamity”
Undark (Digital) Magazine, June 1, 2021
Rick Rediske is quoted regarding the potential for contaminants to be spread from hazardous sites to surrounding communities when dams fail.
Also carried in the journal Eos: Hydrology, cryosphere, & earth surface on June 11, 2021

“Below aging U.S. dams, a potential calamity”
Route Fifty: connecting state and local government leaders, (route-fifty.com), June 2, 2021
Rick Rediske is quoted regarding the potential for contaminants to be spread from hazardous sites to surrounding communities when dams fail.

“Dog beach in Muskegon closed due to high coliform bacteria”
Mlive.com, June 22, 2021
AWRI was mentioned as the entity that tested/detected the high bacteria levels.

“Millions of dollars going to fund local COVID-19 wastewater monitoring projects”
Mid-Michigan Now Newsroom (NBC 25 News), June 24, 2021
Rick Rediske’s lab is listed as one of 19 Michigan labs and/or Public Health Agencies receiving funds to test for Covid.

“Testing wastewater for coronavirus will continue into 2023 thanks to $49M grant”
Mlive.com, June 25, 2021
Rick Rediske’s lab is listed as one of 19 Michigan labs and/or Public Health Agencies receiving funds to test for COVID.

“Green algae plaguing Lake Michigan, but experts say it won’t stay”|
WOODTV8 / woodtv.com, June 30, 2021
Al Steinman and Rick Rediske were both quoted regarding the green algae currently prevalent along the Lake Michigan shore.

“Sighting of dead fish washing up in Lake Macatawa sparks question; what’s causing it?”
The Holland Sentinel/hollandsentinel.com, June 30, 2021
Carl Ruetz was quoted regarding the recent, naturally occurring, fish kill.

LMC EVENTS

There were no events held at the LMC this month.