BOPI BIDDANDA RECEIVES GVSU’S DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION IN A DISCIPLINE AWARD

Bopi Biddanda, Professor of Water Resources at AWRI, was one of several awardees this year for GVSU’s Distinguished Contribution in a Discipline Award. In 2009, he was awarded the Chandler-Misener Award by the International Association for Great Lakes Research for a GVSU-NOAA collaboration that elucidated the effects of river inflow and sediments on plankton in the Great Lakes. His publication record is remarkable and highly cited, including nearly 80 publications, with an average of almost 50 citations per article. The vast majority of his publications include student authors. Biddanda attracts significant and continuing external funding for his research (from e.g., the EPA, NSF, NOAA, and NASA) totaling $1.5 million in just the past 10 years. This year, he was also awarded a Fulbright Senior Fellowship (Spain, 2022) to study “lakes as sentinels of change”. In addition, he serves on the board of two scientific journals, operates the Muskegon Lake Observatory, and serves as the GVSU coordinator for the NASA Michigan Space Grant Program.  In his nomination letter, Al Steinman, AWRI’s Director, summarized Bopi’s achievements as “Dr. Biddanda does ground-breaking and innovative science, involves his students in this research in a meaningful way, receives glowing teaching evaluations, and his professional service is exemplary… Bopi's activities, attitude, and productivity have brought distinction and recognition to GVSU.”

Faculty, Staff, and Student Activities

Bopi Biddanda reports that with 3 weeks already past, his Fulbright research project at the University of Granada, in Spain, is off to a good start with 2 field sampling trips to the Sierra Nevada’s lakes, streams, and rivers already completed. He is continuing work on the Sierra Nevada Observatory – a EU Science project. 

Bopi Biddanda noted that AWRI research vessels D. J. Angus and W. G. Jackson and undergraduate student Ian Stone and graduate student Jasmine Mancuso were featured in a GVSU website announcing the “Reach Higher 2025 Initiative” https://www.gvsu.edu/

Bopi Biddanda continues to direct NASA-MSGC programs at GVSU. The 2022-2023 round of awards for GVSU were announced totaling about $70,000. Distribution was to 1 research faculty, 4 educational staff, 3 undergraduate students and 2 graduate students. Ten out of eighteen GVSU applications were funded. GVSU’s award is among the highest of the 12 partner institutions in the consortium.

Christina Catanese joined the Groundswell Professional Development Committee (co-chaired by Janet Vail) and attended the monthly meeting on February 8^th.

Christina Catanese attended the working group meeting of Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) focused on Arts at Field Stations and Marine Labs on February 8^th.

Christina Catanese and Janet Vail attended the virtual Michigan DNR Nature Center Summit for  Environmental Educators on February 11^th.

Christina Catanese attended the Virtual Field’s webinar "Live from the field: Conservation through art & science" on February 14^th.

Christina Catanese participated in supervisory training through The Management Center on February 24^th – 25^th.

Sarah Hamsher is working with colleagues at University of Colorado, Boulder and University of Montana on an NSF proposal to study diatoms that have cyanobacterial endosymbionts.

Sarah Hamsher is continuing to meet with the local organizing committee of the Joint Aquatic Science Meeting as a representative of the Phycological Society of America.

Sarah Hamsher helped to choose the three best articles published in 2021 in the Journal of Phycology for their Provasoli Award, part of her service to the Phycological Society of America’s Editorial Board.

Charlyn Partridge continues to attend weekly Zoom meetings to discuss the COVID wastewater project and the summer beach sampling project. They are currently looking into adding sequencing (using our Illumina MiSeq) to help identify other emerging strains that may be present.

Charlyn Partridge attended a Qiagen webinar focused on the bioinformatics of identifying Covid strains from sequencing data on February 17^th.

Charlyn Partridge attended a coordinating meeting for the Kalamazoo sturgeon work along with members of the Gun Lake tribe, Michigan DNR, and other state/government agencies.

Charlyn Partridge attended a Michigan Lakes and Streams Association Board of Directors Meeting.

Rick Rediske reported that his Analytical Lab continues to test wastewater samples for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the levels are going down.

Rick Rediske participated in a meeting of the Wolverine Community Advisory Group and Michigan PFAS Action Team’s Community Advisory Work Group.

Carl Ruetz and Matthew Silverhart attended two virtual planning meetings for the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program on February 4^th and February 18^th.

Carl Ruetz attended Sara Diller’s first virtual graduate committee meeting on February 15^th.  Sara is a PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences at Western Michigan University.

Al Steinman was interviewed by University Development as part of a video to honor Doug Kindschi. Former Dean Kindschi will be honored at this year’s annual Enrichment Dinner.

Al Steinman, Mike Hassett, and Carl Ruetz submitted their annual report to the Outdoor Discovery Center for their 2021 work on Project Clarity.

Al Steinman continues his participation as a member of the Great Lakes Advisory Board (GLAB). The GLAB will be presenting their recommendations to the EPA at a public meeting to be held virtually on March 30^th.

Al Steinman continues his work as a member of the National Academy of Sciences committee overseeing Everglades Restoration. He recently attended two virtual meetings, and will be doing a site visit in Florida at the end of March.

Al Steinman is on the search committee to select a new Director for Office of Sponsored Programs. The committee is in the process of interviewing candidates and evaluating new applications.

Al Steinman serves on the Advisory Board of the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame. They recently met to select this year’s awardees. The event is to be held at Eberhard Center on May 10^th and will be emceed by Rick Rediske.

Kevin Strychar continues to organize his portion of the Michigan Science Olympiad. He is working with Samantha Jacques (Channel 13 on your side) and Alana Dachtler (Vice President of International Met Systems in Grand Rapids).

Janet Vail and Amanda Syers attended training on the “Non-formal guidelines for excellence training”. The session dates are February 16^th and 23^rd.

Janet Vail attended the Environmental and Sustainability Studies faculty meeting on February 18^th. There is an ENS course that will have sessions on Beaver Island this summer.

Janet Vail has been attending various Project WET, NASA, and climate change webinars throughout February.

Nick Vander Stelt, Carl Ruetz’s current graduate student, and Brendan May, an undergraduate student working with Carl, had their abstracts accepted for the Michigan Chapter of American Fisheries Society (MIAFS) meeting on March 17^th-18^th.  Brendan has been awarded funding from the Academic Conference Fund to support his participation at the conference.

Sean Woznicki participated in the Biology Graduate Committee interviews of prospective graduate students on February 18^th.

Sean Woznicki is preparing for the Science Olympiad event “Remote Sensing”, for which he is an event coordinator.

Sean Woznicki was invited to participate in NASA FINESST (Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology) proposal review panel in March.

Sean Woznicki joined the thesis committee for Rob Larson, GVSU Biology Department; Rob’s thesis is on remote sensing of wild rice.

Sean Woznicki joined the thesis committee for Ben Gunnett, GVSU Biology Department; Ben’s thesis is on sturgeon habitat suitability in the Grand River.

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

Christina Catanese and Eric Hecox co-presented highlights of the 2021 vessel season and COVID-19 adaptations at the Great Lakes Association of Science Ships (GLASS) annual Workshop on February 17^th.

Charlyn Partridge was invited to present at the 2022 Hemlock Wooley Adelgid partnership update about her eDNA work on February 23^rd.

Charlyn Partridge was invited to present her baby’s breath work as part of the Central Michigan University Biology Seminar Series. This seminar will take place on April 28^th.

Al Steinman will be giving a presentation and serve as a panelist for FLOW’s Groundwater event for World Water Day to be held virtually on March 22^nd.

Al Steinman will be serving on a virtual panel discussing nutrient application policies sponsored by the Alliance for Great Lakes in early April.

Al Steinman will be serving on a panel discussing ecosystem services in the Great Lakes as part of the JASM conference in May.

Kevin Strychar will give two presentations regarding climate change for Reeths-Puffer Schools on March 2^nd and March 3^rd.

Kevin Strychar is a committee organizer and Keynote speaker for the Fisheries and Climate Change Conference to be held in Tokyo, Japan on May 18-19, 2022.

Kevin Strychar is a committee organizer and Keynote speaker for the 10^th Annual World Congress of Ocean Sciences to be held in Sapporo, Japan on January 9-11, 2023.

PUBLICATIONS

Bopi Biddanda was a co-author of article published in the journal Eos:
Villar-Argaiz, M., P. Jáimez-Cuéllar, E. Corral, M. Tierno de Figueroa, M. López-Rodríguez, P. Fernández, A. Jiménez, A. Quesada, P. Barea, F. Pérez, J. Medina-Sánchez, and B. Biddanda. 2022. Rios de Vida: High school students assess mountain rivers as Citizen scientists. Eos, American Geophysical Union. February 23, 2022. https://americangeophysicalunion.tumblr.com/post/676994527175770112/rios-devidahigh-school-students-assess-mountain

Carl Ruetz was a co-author of a manuscript accepted in the journal Wetland Ecology and Management:
Diller, S.N., A.H. Harrison, K.P. Kowalski, V.J. Brady, J.J.H. Ciborowski, M.J. Cooper, J.D. Dumke, J.P. Gathman, C.R. Ruetz III, D.G. Uzarski, D.A. Wilcox, and J.S. Schaeffer. In press. Influences of seasonality and habitat quality on Great Lakes coastal wetland fish community composition and diets. Wetland Ecology & Management.

Al Steinman is the lead author of a publication accepted by Sustainability:
Steinman, A.D., Uzarski, D.G., Lusch, D., Miller, C., Doran, P., Zimnicki, T., Fry, L., Chu, P., Allan, J., Asher, J., Bratton, J., Carpenter, D., Dempsey, D., Drummond, C., Erickson, M., Esch, J., Garwood, A., Haefner, R., Harrison, A., Lemke, L., Nicholas, J., Ogilvie, W., O’Leary, B., Sachs, P., Seelbach, P., Seidel, T., Suchy, A., Yellich, J. In Press. Groundwater in Crisis? Addressing groundwater challenges in Michigan as a template for the Great Lakes. Sustainability.

Al Steinman is the lead author, and Michael Hassett and Maggie Oudsema are co-authors of a publication accepted by Frontiers in Environmental Science:
Steinman, A.D., M. Hassett, and M. Oudsema. In Press. Reduction of Phosphorus using Iron Slag Filters in the Macatawa Watershed (Michigan). Frontiers in Environmental Science, Section Freshwater Science.

Al Steinman is a co-author of a publication accepted to Journal of Great Lakes Research:
Bergstrom, R.D., L.B. Johnson, R.B. Sterner, G.S. Bullerjahn, J.T, Fergen, J.D. Lenters, P.E. Norris, and A.D. Steinman. In Press. Building a research network to better understand climate governance in the Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research.

Rachel Orzechowski is the lead author and Al Steinman is a co-author of an article accepted to Environmental Monitoring and Assessment:
Orzechowski, R. and A.D. Steinman. In Press. Assessment of shoreline restoration using macroinvertebrates in a Great Lakes Area of Concern. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

Sean Woznicki is a co-author of a manuscript accepted by Freshwater Science:
Hopkins, K.G., S.A. Woznicki, B. Williams, C. Stillwell, E. Naibert, M. Metes, D.K. Jones, D. Hogan, N. Hall, R.M. Fanelli, and A.S. Bhaskar. 2022. Lessons learned from 20 y of monitoring suburban development with distributed stormwater management in Clarksburg, Maryland, USA. Freshwater Science. https://doi.org/10.1086/719360

Grants, Contracts, Awards, and Recognition

GRANTS & CONTRACTS

Charlyn Partridge (AWRI), Jim McNair (AWRI) and Alexandra Locher (Biology) were awarded funding from the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program to improve monitoring methods for detection of hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) across Michigan’s hemlock forests. This project will use high-resolution aerial imagery to predict locations of hemlocks vulnerable to HWA and use airborne eDNA methods to help detect HWA in high-risk locations. The goals are to aid in determining high-priority areas for surveillance, help identify the extent of Michigan’s populations, and evaluate current treatment measures. 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Bopi Biddanda was awarded GVSU’s Distinguished Contribution in a Discipline Award.

Ellen Foley recently participated in the Three Minute Thesis competition; she won 2^nd place with the Judges, and tied for 1^st place with the public vote.

AWRI News and Events

AWRI in the News:

“Do muck-digesting pellets work?”
The Michigan Riparian, Winter 2022
Al Steinman and Emily Kindervater were authors of an article about muck-digesting pellets.

“Welcome Dr. Charlyn Partridge”
The Michigan Riparian, Winter 2022
Charlyn was acknowledged for her work at AWRI, and for her recent appointment to Board of Directors of the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association.

“Faculty achievements recognized during annual awards convocation”
FORUM: a newsletter for the GVSU Community, February 8, 2022
Bopi Biddanda received a Distinguished Contribution in a Discipline Award and was recognized.

“AWRI offers internship, scholarship opportunities”
FORUM: a newsletter for the GVSU Community, February 8, 2022
AWRI’s announcement regarding undergraduate summer internships was shared.

“A Grand Rapids lake and the consequences of Michigan’s road salt addiction”
Bridge Michigan, February 10, 2022
The thesis work that graduate student Ellen Foley is doing on Church Lake is discussed. Al Steinman (Ellen’s advisor) is quoted.

“Neighbors concerned about road salt runoff in Grand Rapids lake”
WOOD TV 8, February 15, 2022
Ellen Foley, graduate student working with Al Steinman was interviewed about her graduate research on Church Lake.

“Great Lakes water levels are 2 feet lower than records set in 2020”
FOX 17, February 16, 2022
Al Steinman is interviewed regarding lake levels.

“Even in water-rich Michigan, no guarantee of enough for all"
Detroit Free Press, February 26, 2022
Al Steinman is quoted regarding groundwater levels in Ottawa County.
Also carried by:
AP News on 2/26/2022
U.S. News & World Report on 2/28/2022

Ellen Foley, Al Steinman’s current graduate student, was recently interviewed about her Church
Lake research in the Bridge and on WOOD-TV.

LMC EVENTS

February 25 – GVSU University Development used the Multipurpose Room to shoot a video tribute to former Dean Doug Kindschi