Every year since 2002, scientists from the United States and Canada converge on one of the five Great Lakes to collaborate in an intensive effort called the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI).

The goal of CSMI is to provide lake managers with the research and monitoring information necessary to make well-informed, science-based management decisions. The research is tailored to the unique challenges and data gaps associated with each lake.

In the past 10 years, Lake Michigan has been the focus of intensive research in 2015 and 2020, with 2025 (and every five years after that) expected to be the lake’s field years.

A list of CSMI-related products created by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant can be found in our Publications and Products Database.

Slide the bar from left to right to see how the Lake Michigan food web has changed since the introduction of zebra and quagga mussels.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office and Environment and Climate Change Canada organize the binational program. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant specialists help coordinate researchers and share results through meetings, reports, and outreach products.

Paris Collingsworth, Great Lakes ecosystem specialist, provides leadership in collaboration with EPA scientists, defining critical questions and coordinating agency research efforts for large-scale studies. He works with the Lakewide Action and Management Plans partners for each lake as they define research priorities, and he coordinates with scientists as they set up studies and analyze data. Kristin TePas, Great Lakes outreach specialist, has been developing Lake Michigan-specific informational products for local stakeholder groups.

For the latest information about CSMI Lake Michigan research, visit iiseagrant.org/lakemichiganhealth.