AWRI's New Fleet Captain

Eric Hecox is AWRI’s new Fleet Captain. Eric worked as a vessel captain at AWRI for the last 4 years under Captain Tony Fiore, where he gained firsthand experience managing the vessel program. Eric recognizes and is grateful that over the last 20 years, the vessel program has set a very high bar for the upkeep and maintenance of AWRI’s vessels and he intends to maintain the same level of excellence. He enjoys the outreach and education program and looks forward to exploring more ways of utilizing our research vessels. Quoting Eric, “I am very excited to be here and am looking forward to a great future with AWRI.” 

 

FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENT ACTIVITIES

Bopi Biddanda continues his collaborative Fulbright project with University of Granada. 

The D.J. Angus launches on April 11^th, with the first scheduled cruise on April 19^th. The W.G. Jackson is delayed in launching due to construction on the Grand Haven lift bridge that prevents it from traveling from its winter storage home to Muskegon. It will launch on May 2^nd and trips will begin on May 9^th.

Christina Catanese attended the Groundswell Professional Development Committee monthly meeting on March 8^th.

Christina Catanese attended the working group meeting of OBFS focused on Arts at Field Stations and Marine Labs on March 8^th.

Christina Catanese attended the monthly NAML Education Committee meeting on March 18^th.

Christina Catanese lead a gathering of the science instructors for a preseason kickoff meeting on March 22^nd. There was also a focused curriculum training for the new instructors on March 25^th.

Sarah Hamsher attended the 2022 Great Lakes Conference virtually on March 8^th.

Sarah Hamsher is participating in an ACUE Promoting Active Learning Online course (February 14 - April 3, 2022).

Sarah Hamsher is a co-PI on an NSF proposal to study diatoms that have cyanobacterial endosymbionts with colleagues at University of Colorado, Boulder and University of Montana. This proposal was submitted March 2^nd.

Sarah Hamsher volunteered for the Region 12 Michigan Science Olympiad on Saturday, March 19^th.

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

Sarah Hamsher joined the committees of 2 graduate students, AWRI graduate student Paris Velasquez and Biology graduate student Taylor Suttorp, both of whom had their first committee meetings this month.

Jim McNair participated in a face-to-face meeting of the CLAS Faculty Development Committee on March 17^th.

Charlyn Partridge met with Drew Rayner, the West Michigan Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Coordinator, on March 11^th to discuss potential sites for our MISGP grant.

Charlyn Partridge continues to attend weekly Zoom meetings to discuss the COVID wastewater project and the summer beach sampling project. She is working on sequencing (using our Illumina MiSeq) some of the samples to help identify dominant and other emerging strains that may be present.

Charlyn Partridge reviewed 9 Catalyst Grants and 5 Collaborative Grants for the Research and Development Committee for the grant review meeting that was held on March 18^th.

Charlyn Partridge is working with Melissa DeSimone of Michigan Lakes and Streams Association (MLSA) to include some AWRI research presentations at the annual MLSA conference to be held May 6^th-7^th at Crystal Mountain Resort.

Rick Rediske participated in the Michigan PFAS Action Team’s Community Advisory Work Group and was elected to serve on the Leadership Team and chair the Informing the Public subcommittee.

Carl Ruetz attended a webinar about updates on Michigan’s White River Watershed by Trout Unlimited on March 16^th.

Carl Ruetz, Nick Vander Stelt (graduate student), Matthew Silverhart (graduate student), and Brendan May (undergraduate student) attended the annual meeting of the Michigan Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (MI-AFS) in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on March 17^th-18^th.  As a part of the MI-AFS conference, Nick, Matthew, and Brendan also attended a workshop on March 16^th titled: “Natural Resource Careers and Pointers”.

Carl Ruetz attended virtually the State of Lake Michigan: Lake Michigan Committee meeting of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission on March 23^rd.

Al Steinman was part of FLOW’s (For Love of Water) webinar panel on “Groundwater—Making the Invisible Visible on World Water Day & Every Day" to commemorate World Water Day on March 22^nd. A video of the webinar is available at: https://www.facebook.com/flowforwater

Al Steinman participated in a site visit to the Everglades on March 24-25^th as part of his National Academy of Sciences committee assignment reviewing the Florida Everglades Restoration Program for Congress.

Al Steinman met with State Senator Bumstead and Representative Sabo to enlist their aid in securing a letter of application from the Governor’s Office to nominate the West Michigan Drowned Rivermouth complex as a National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Al Steinman has been asked by EPA Region V to serve another term on the Great Lakes Advisory Board.

Al Steinman was an invited speaker on a webinar panel hosted by the Alliance for the Great Lakes on April 4^th. The topic is agricultural nutrient reduction practices.

Al Steinman continued his community service with board/committee meetings for Goodwill of West Michigan and the West Michigan Symphony.

Al Steinman served on the search committee for a new director of GVSU’s Office of Sponsored Programs.

Al Steinman continued his professional service serving on planning/fundraising committees for the upcoming JASM and US AOC conferences. 

Kevin Strychar participated as a co-advisor with Samantha Jacques (Channel 13 on your side), Alana Dachtler (Vice President of International Met Systems in Grand Rapids) at the Michigan Science Olympiad held at GVSU on March 19^th. Their event was Meteorology for middle school students.

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

Janet Vail and Amanda Syers attended a Project WET Webinar Wednesday training to connect Project WET activities with Environmental Justice Issues on March 9^th.

Janet Vail and Amanda attended a virtual meeting of the Michigan Environmental Excellence trainers on March 10^th.

Janet Vail participated in a webinar about “Teaching Climate Consequences with the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN)” on March 14^th.

Janet Vail attended a National Weather Service 2022 Virtual Weather Spotter Training on March 17^th.

Janet Vail is helping to plan the West Michigan Environmental Action Council and Sierra Club’s "Think Green Locally: Together We Make A Difference!" at North Grove Brewery in Montague, to be held on Thursday April 21^st.

Janet Vail will be involved in the “Michigan Resources for Climate and Land Cover Change Education (MiRCLE): Linking virtual data with outdoor hands-on experience” project. She is the curriculum development adviser and climate change science education mentor for the project team. This 2022-23 project is supported by the Michigan Space Grant Consortium.

Sean Woznicki attended Ben Gunnett’s (Biology) graduate committee meeting on March 1^st.

Sean Woznicki met with the Assistant Secretary for Agriculture of Vojvodina Province, Serbia to discuss agricultural subsidies and practices as part of the NASA Serbia project on March 11^th.

Sean Woznicki served as Event Supervisor for the Remote Sensing event at Science Olympiad on March 19^th.

Sean Woznicki is currently reviewing proposals as part of NASA panel review; the panel is to be held virtually on March 27^th - 28^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 ***.

Publications

Orzechowski, R.M. and A.D. Steinman. 2022. Assessment of shoreline restoration using macroinvertebrates in a Great Lakes Area of Concern. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 194: 260; doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09899-5

Rick Rediske and Molly Lane are contributing authors to the manuscript “Interlaboratory Performance and Potential Quantitative PCR Performance Benchmarks for NIST SRM® 2917” that will be submitted to Environmental Science and Technology early in April. AWRI was one of 12 labs in the USA selected to validate a novel plasmid that has 12 genetic markers used for Molecular Source Tracking. The validation study shows that the plasmid can serve as the first commercially available standard reference material for Molecular Source Tracking research.

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. 2022. Groundwater in Crisis? Addressing groundwater challenges in Michigan as a template for the Great Lakes. Sustainability. 14(5), 3008; doi:10.3390/su14053008

Steinman, A.D., M. Hassett, M. Oudsema, and C. Penn. In Press. Reduction of Phosphorus using Electric Arc Furnace Slag Filters in the Macatawa Watershed (Michigan). Frontiers in Environmental Science, section Freshwater Science.

Fergen, J.T., Bergstrom, R.D., Twiss, M.R., Johnson, L., Steinman, A.D., and Gagnon, V. In Press. Updated Census in the Laurentian Great Lakes Watershed:  A Framework for Evaluating the Population of the Region. Journal of Great Lakes Research.

Cheng, C., Steinman, A.D., Zhang, K., Lin, Q., Xue, Q., Xing, X. and Xie, L. In Press. Risk assessment and identification of factors influencing the historical concentrations of microcystin in Lake Taihu, China. Journal of Environmental Sciences.

 

Presentations - (Presenter listed first)

Christina Catanese and Janet Vail taught a classroom program at the Lakeshore Museum for Central Elementary second grade students as part of their Big Lesson Week on March 9^th.

Carl Ruetz presented virtually to the White Lake Area Climate Action Council on March 31^st related to the effects of climate change on local fish populations.

Al Steinman is presenting on Michigan’s Blue Economy as part of the Michigan Maritime Museum’s Virtual Lecture Series on April 20^th.

Nick Vander Stelt and Brendan May both presented posters at the MI-AFS conference:
Vander Stelt, N.**, C.R. Ruetz III, D. Mays, and B. Fessell. Poster. Spatial variation of fish assemblages and habitat in coldwater tributaries of the Boardman-Ottaway River.
May, B.D.*, and C.R. Ruetz III. Poster. Juvenile largemouth bass population dynamics in Muskegon Lake: preliminary results.

Kevin Strychar gave two presentations about Climate Change to students at Reeths-Puffer School on March 2^nd - 3^rd.

Amanda Syers gave a presentation about Project WET to the Michigan American Water Works Association’s (MI- AWWA) Youth Education committee on March 14. 

Janet Vail helped to facilitate a MiRCLE webinar on climate change featuring Eileen Boekestein, Environmental Education Coordinator at Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy on March 3^rd.

Sean Woznicki was guest lecturer for a Royal Oak High School Environmental Science classes on March 2^nd. The title of his presentation was “Sustainable Agriculture and Water Resources”.

Grants, Contracts, Awards, and Recognition

Grants & Contracts

Bopi Biddanda continues to direct the NASA-MSGC programs at GVSU. Bopi received MSGC funding ($1500) for the 2022-2023 grant period.

Charlyn Partridge’s lab was awarded a Michigan Invasive Species Grant ($244,900), “Improving monitoring methods for detection of HWA across hemlock forests” to continue the eDNA work. They are also upgrading their eDNA traps with the help of the 3D printer; this work is being done by Renee Tardani and Kate Geller. 

Carl Ruetz has received two sub-awards from the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission to conduct pre-construction fish monitoring in Stony Creek ($25,000), and tributaries of the White River ($27,156). The work in the White River focuses on road-stream crossings and the work in Stony Creek focuses on a dam removal.

CIGLR has funded a proposal for $20,000 submitted by Al Steinman to host a Summit to discuss ways to coordinate mesocosm experiments across the Great Lakes region. 

The Bear Lake – Lake Board voted to fund Al Steinman to conduct Bear Lake Water Quality monitoring ($18,238) for the 2022 season. 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

No awards this month.

AWRI News and Events

AWRI IN THE NEWS

Charlyn Partridge was interviewed by the Ludington Daily News about her Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) work and that article came out on March 3^rd. https://www.shorelinemedia.net/ludington_daily_news/news/local/new-invasive-species-detection-tech-orv-clean-off-campaign-funded-by-state-grants/article_0a65f29c-9a2b-55e7-bf71-fe3d56b61794.html

“Michigan research gets new Great Lakes mission with invasive species grant"
MLive, March 2, 2022
Charlyn Partridge’s project involving the use of airborne environmental DNA methods to help detect Hemlock Woolly Adelgid was listed as a funded project.

“Streamside incubator could help restore grayling to Michigan”
Ludington Daily News, March 20, 2022
Alan Mock, former graduate student with Carl Ruetz, was mentioned regarding his master’s thesis work involving incubators to restore Arctic Grayling to Michigan.

“Grand Valley among nation’s leaders in Fulbright Scholars”
GVNext, March 24, 2022
Bopi Biddanda’s recent Fulbright Scholarship was mentioned. Bopi is collaborating with researchers from University of Grenada in Spain this winter semester.

 

 

LMC EVENTS

March 10 –Lakeshore Youth Leadership

March 11 –MSU Extension, ServSafe Manager Certification

March 18 –AWRI Seminar Series

March 25 –Muskegon Public Schools – Teacher’s Training