DIRECTOR REVIEWING EVERGLADES RESTORATION PROGRESS FOR A NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES COMMITTEE

Al Steinman, AWRI’s Director, was appointed last March to a 2-year term as a member of the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress. Steinman has been working with 11 other committee members from throughout the country on their evaluation of restoration progress in this iconic south Florida ecosystem.  He recently returned from a site visit in Florida. Al was assigned two focal areas: 1) evaluating the new Lake Okeechobee regulation schedule, which is designed to better balance the demands for water among the utilities, agricultural community, northern estuaries, and the lake itself, and 2) the effectiveness of the Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs), which cover ~53,000 acres and treat the nutrient-rich runoff water from the Everglades Agricultural Area and Lake Okeechobee before reaching the Everglades. Lawsuits have dictated that by 2027, total phosphorus concentrations, which are often 100 to 200 µg/L entering the STAs, must be no higher than 13 µg/L when exiting the STAs. The committee findings will be presented to the US Congress next year, and published as a book by the National Academy of Sciences. 

 

FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENT ACTIVITIES

The first vessel cruises of the season ran the week of April 18^th on the D.J. Angus. The W.G. Jackson will be launching in early May once construction on the Grand Haven lift bridge concludes and the Jackson can sail under the bridge from its winter berth up to Muskegon.

AWRI Science Instructors participated in the Lakeshore Earth Day Celebration in Grand Haven on April 23^rd.

Christina Catanese attended the monthly NAML Education Committee community of practice gathering on April 22^nd.

Sarah Hamsher completed the ACUE Promoting Active Learning Online course that ran from February 14^th - April 3^rd.

Sarah Hamsher, Charlyn Partridge, and Al Steinman attended the GVSU Ott Lecture presented by Anne McNeil on microplastics on April 14^th.

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.

Jim McNair recently participated in two meetings of the CLAS Faculty Development Committee.

The Partridge lab is preparing for field work associated with their Michigan Invasive Species Grant, “Improving monitoring methods for detection of HWA across hemlock forests” to continue their eDNA work.

Charlyn Partridge attended 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 met with Drew Rayner, the West Michigan Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Coordinator, and Keely Atkins on April 20^th to finalize sites for their MISGP grant.

Charlyn Partridge met with Nicole Schafer from Sleeping Bear Dunes on April 6^th to finalize site location for our eDNA traps for this summer. She also met with Chris MacQuarrie from Canadian Forest Service about using their eDNA traps for HWA in the Niagara region.

Charlyn Partridge, Rick Rediske, Christina Catanese, Carl Ruetz, and Al Steinman attended a meeting between GVSU and the John Ball Zoo on April 15^th to discuss potential collaborations between AWRI and the Zoo.

Charlyn Partridge attended a Research and Development Committee meeting on April 15^th to discuss potential changes to the granting programs.

The Rediske lab continues to test wastewater samples for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the levels are starting to increase. They began testing for the Omicron variants the week of April 18^th.

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

Carl Ruetz is working on a new Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocol for two new projects focused on collecting pre-construction data for stream restoration work in White River and Stony Creek.

Al Steinman will be serving on a panel at JASM on the topic of “Ecosystem services in the Great Lakes”.

Al Steinman will be serving on a panel for the AOC conference on the topic of “Eutrophication BUIs”.

Al Steinman participated in zoom meetings for his committee work for the National Academy of Sciences on evaluation Everglades restoration progress.

Al Steinman continues his service on the boards and committees for the West Michigan Symphony and Goodwill International of West Michigan.

Janet Vail attended a virtual meeting for re-activation of the Great Lakes Educators of Aquatic and Marine Sciences (GLEAMS) chapter of the National Marine Educators Association on April 6^th.

Janet Vail co-facilitated a Groundswell Professional Development meeting on April 12^th.

Janet Vail attended Project WET, GLOBE, EGLE, Population Education, and MiRCLE webinars.

Sean Woznicki met with the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework National Hub team (Iowa State U, U Minnesota) to discuss Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework model implementation in Michigan.

Sean Woznicki participated in both Ben Gunnett’s (Biology) and Rob Larson’s (Biology) qualifying exam, held on April 12^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:

Al Steinman was a co-author of an article with Chinese collaborators recently published in Journal of Environmental Sciences.
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.

Al Steinman is an author of an article about slag filters in the journal Frontiers. Mike Hassett and Maggie Oudsema are co-authors.
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.

Al Steinman is an author of an article with collaborators from Univ. of Minn-Duluth in Journal of Great Lakes Research.
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.

Rachel Orzechowski is the author of an article that derived paper from her Kindschi Fellowship in the journal Environmental Monitoring & Assessment. Al Steinman is a co-author.
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

 

Presentations - (Presenter listed first):

Nate Dugener, graduate student working with Bopi Biddanda, presented a poster at the GVSU Graduate Student Showcase on April 12^th.
Dugener, N.M.**, I.P. Stone, A.A. Weinke, and B.A. Biddanda. Poster. Warming and loading shape bottom water hypoxia dynamics in a Great Lakes Estuary.

Ellen Foley, graduate student working with Al Steinman, presented a poster at the GVSU Graduate Student Showcase on April 12^th.
E. Foley** and A.D. Steinman. Poster. Impacts of Excess Chloride on Phosphorus in an Urban Eutrophic Lake.

Ellen Foley and Mike Hassett will be presenting at the MLSA and JASM meetings in May.

Cruz Garcia, an undergraduate student working with Sarah Hamsher, presented his research at the Cell and Molecular Biology Department student seminar on April 9.

Sarah Hamsher gave a virtual seminar, “A diatom adventure: exploring their diversity, taxonomy, organellar genomics, and ecology” at Hope College on April 1^st.

John Hart, graduate student working with Rick Rediske, and Rick Rediske, will be presenting at the JASM conference in Grand Rapids in May.

Kelsey Inman-Carter and Cruz Garcia, both Sarah Hamsher’s undergraduate students, presented posters at the GVSU Student Scholars Day on April 13.

Alexis Porter and Rick Rediske will be presenting at the Michigan Lake and Stream Association Conference at Crystal Mountain in May.

Rick Rediske will be presenting at the AOC Conference in Muskegon in May.

Al Steinman gave a virtual seminar on April 20 for the Michigan Maritime Museum located in South Haven, MI on the topic of “Michigan’s Blue Economy”.

Jon Walt, graduate student working with Sean Woznicki, gave an oral presentation at the International Association for Landscape Ecology-North America conference titled “Mapping the Spread of Invasive Plants in Michigan Wetlands with Remote Sensing” on April 14^th.

Sean Woznicki gave a guest lecture to GPY 470 on April 6^th. The title was “High-resolution land cover classification in Google Earth Engine”.

Grants, Contracts, Awards, and Recognition

GRANTS & CONTRACTS:

Davis Fray, Sarah Hamsher’s graduate student, received a GVSU Presidential Research Grant to fund his work on diatoms living in low-oxygen, high-sulfur springs.

Charlyn Partridge was awarded a CSCE Catalyst grant to evaluate differential gene expression of candidate genes that may be contributing to population adaptation.

The Steinman lab was awarded a contract with Bear Lake - Lake Board to monitor for Bear Lake in 2022.

Paris Velasquez received a GVSU Presidential Research Grant to fund her research on the effects of microplastic biofilms on an anthropogenically impacted Urban Lake.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION:

Amanda Syers has been selected as an AP Awards winner of the 2022 Outstanding Team Project Award, as a part of the Women's Commission Family Leave Task Force. The award ceremony takes place on April 19^th.

AWRI News and Events

AWRI IN THE NEWS

“GVSU researchers studying high chloride, phosphorus levels in Grand Rapids lake”
GVNext, April 5, 2022
Al Steinman and his graduate student Ellen Foley are investigating Church Lake in Grand Rapids.

LMC EVENTS

April 7 – Outdoor Discovery Center Meeting

April 15 – MSU Extension, ServSafe Manager Certification