May 9th, 2019 by Hope Charters
Managed by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, the Coastal Management Fellowship offers on-the-job training for postgraduate students in coastal resource management and policy. Candidates are matched with state and jurisdictional coastal zone programs to work on select projects chosen by NOAA. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant recruits and nominates students attending Illinois and Indiana universities.
This year, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant candidate Melanie Perello was matched with Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program to provide data, tools and resources to area practitioners and landowners tackling Lake Superior erosion in Minnesota. Perello comes to the fellowship from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where she earned her doctorate in applied earth sciences. She holds a master’s degree in environmental science and policy from Plymouth State University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Westminster College. Perello will start her fellowship in August.
April 30th, 2019 by Hope Charters
Educators recently enjoyed a day-long workshop investigating water quality and learning how to empower students to protect their local watershed at the Indiana Dunes National Park’s Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education. The workshop was designed to provide teachers with an opportunity to incorporate the latest place-based research and education concepts about the Great Lakes into their curriculum, encouraging student stewardship, community development and continuing science education.
Topics included learning about watersheds and water quality stressors from the Healthy Water Healthy People curriculum, issues surrounding invasive Asian carp, impacts to our waterways from unused medicine and how to incorporate real water monitoring equipment into classroom learning.
“The use of water quality monitoring equipment better connects students to their environment and makes science more real for them,” said Kristin TePas, community outreach specialist for Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG). The Hydrolab monitoring equipment is available for teachers to use with their students, courtesy of the Limno Loan program through a partnership between IISG and the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office.
Terri Hallesy, IISG Education Coordinator, presents Great Lakes Literacy Principles to workshop participants.
During the workshop, IISG’s Education Coordinator, Terri Hallesy, shared education activities from the Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL). CGLL engages educators, students, scientists and lifelong learners in stewardship and citizen science projects to help protect and restore Great Lakes watersheds.
“A major focus of the workshop was creating awareness of Great Lakes Literacy Principles, a great foundation from which to create an environmental stewardship ethic,” said Hallesy. Teachers were provided with hands-on sessions throughout the day to engage students and the community to make effective decisions about protecting and sustaining our waterways.
In addition to receiving a copy of the Healthy Water Healthy People curriculum, participating teachers will receive a stipend upon facilitation of a stewardship or water quality monitoring project with their students.
The workshop was co-sponsored by Indiana Dunes National Park, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, Indiana University Northwest, Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife, Dunes Learning Center and the Great Lakes Research and Education Center.
March 11th, 2019 by Hope Charters
The National Sea Grant Office has announced three separate funding opportunities for aquaculture projects as part of the Sea Grant National Aquaculture Initiative. If Illinois or Indiana-based partners are interested in discussing state or regional ideas or opportunities, contact Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Assistant Director Stuart Carlton. The second and third opportunities below require a Sea Grant program to serve as lead applicant.
- Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research Needs in Aquaculture – 2019, NOAA-OAR-SG-2019-2005953
The National Sea Grant Office anticipates around $3,000,000 will be available to support research to address critical gaps in social, behavioral, and economic knowledge as it relates to U.S. aquaculture and the communities impacted and served by it. The initiative is informed by the National Strategic Plan for Federal Aquaculture Research; the Sea Grant 10-Year NOAA Sea Grant Aquaculture Vision; and previous research from federal, state, and university scientists.
- Exploring New Aquaculture Opportunities – 2019, NOAA-OAR-SG-2019-2005960
Sea Grant anticipates $1,500,000 will be available to support Sea Grant-led aquaculture projects to catalyze work in a range of topics or geographies. This competition will fund diverse, and at times, high-risk, developmental projects that will envision, explore and advance aquaculture opportunities where a minimal foundation currently exists.
- Advanced Aquaculture Collaborative Programs – 2019, NOAA-OAR-SG-2019-2005963
Sea Grant anticipates at least $9,000,000 will be available to support the establishment of collaborative programs to build the capacity of Sea Grant and its partners to advance aquaculture in areas where a foundation of knowledge and activity currently exists but where significant barriers to sustainable domestic marine and Great Lakes aquaculture remain. These collaborative programs will serve as geographic or topic-based hubs for fully integrated, transdisciplinary research, outreach, and education that will provide broad, non-proprietary support and investment for building and/or enhancing an aquaculture industry.
For more information, view our Funding Opportunities page or contact Carolyn Foley with additional questions.
February 15th, 2019 by Hope Charters
No matter where you live, you live in a watershed—an area of land that drains to a waterbody such as a stream, river or lake. Through a structured training program beginning in March, the Indiana Master Watershed Steward Program (IMWSP) will provide community members with knowledge about their surrounding water bodies and how to keep them healthy. The free pilot program is focused on Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties but is open to all Indiana residents.
The IMWSP will give participants the opportunity to interact with area experts on subjects pertaining to their local watershed. From these natural resource professionals, participants will learn the fundamentals of watershed hydrology, water quality, soil and geology, flooding and stormwater, green infrastructure, watershed wildlife, how people affect watersheds and water quality, and more.
The program will engage participants with local environmental agencies and community groups to promote community participation in local water quality and fish and wildlife enhancement through volunteering efforts. Each program participant will apply knowledge gained from the IMWSP to complete a local watershed stewardship project, such as assisting with streambank restoration, riverside cleanups and promoting safe boating.
Application
IMWSP applications are due February 22, 2019. For registration materials, email Leslie Dorworth at ldorwort@pnw.edu or call (219)989-2726.
Class Schedule
Participants will complete 12 weeks of training. Classes begin March 12 and end May 14, 2019. They will be held every Tuesday from 6-8:30 p.m. CT at The Residences at Coffee Creek, 2300 Village Point in Chesterton, Indiana.
Continuing Education Units
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available for educators who complete the IMWSP.
February 8th, 2019 by Hope Charters
Margaret Schneemann, water resource economist for Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, is featured in American Public Media’s story “So Close, Yet So Costly: In cities on the Great Lakes, water pipes are crumbling and poor people are paying the price.”
The story discusses the water pricing crisis around the country, with a focus on Great Lakes cities, where consumer water bills are climbing despite having abundant fresh water resources nearby. Community residents are being left without running water as their bills become unaffordable.
Read the full story: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2019/02/07/great-lakes-water-shutoffs
January 22nd, 2019 by Hope Charters
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center has released information about additional IISG funding for researcher John Scott to expand a microplastics research project to include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Excerpt: “With new funding from Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) researcher John Scott and his team will be able to expand their research to include more environmental contaminants. With their current project on persistent organic pollutants in Lake Muskegon, they are studying the effects of microplastic type and deployment time in the sediments and the water column on sorption of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to the microplastic particles.”
Full URL – “Persistent Organic Pollutants on Microplastics Project expanded to include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances” by Elizabeth Meschewski”: https://blog.istc.illinois.edu/2018/11/12/persistent-organic-pollutants-on-microplastics-project-expanded-to-include-per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances/
January 22nd, 2019 by Hope Charters
Caitie Nigrelli, an environmental social scientist working for IISG and the U.S. EPA, has been featured in a Christian Science Monitor article about her involvement in the cleanup of the Grand Calumet River in Northwest Indiana.
The reason behind the article? “Industry and environmental interests are often opposed. But in Indiana, a river cleanup requiring both sides to negotiate with each other offers an example for conservation partnerships everywhere.”
Full story: “In an Indiana river cleanup, businesses and environmentalists cooperate” by Lauren Little https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Progress-Watch/2018/1029/In-an-Indiana-river-cleanup-businesses-and-environmentalists-cooperate
December 11th, 2018 by Hope Charters
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) is excited to announce the funding of five new Discovery Projects. These small, one-year projects help researchers achieve bigger and better things, such as larger grants to study critical questions, providing proof of concepts that can be scaled up to support labs or businesses, or generating tools to help communities make the best use of available information. The five projects IISG began funding in 2018 address aquaculture, aquatic invasive species and pollution.
“These five new research projects are asking questions that are highly relevant to aquatic systems in Illinois, Indiana, Lake Michigan and the broader Great Lakes region,” said IISG Director Tomas Höök. “We have great hopes that these Discovery Projects will indeed springboard their principal investigators to other opportunities and outcomes.”
Aquaculture
Karolina Kwasek of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale will explore whether invasive Asian carp could be used to feed very young largemouth bass raised in aquaculture facilities. Largemouth bass are a popular species across the country, but their high protein requirements make them tricky to rear. Kwasek hopes this novel use of Asian carp may support aquaculture growers who wish to raise largemouth bass.
Invasive Species
Eric Larson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will use a relatively new concept, that of an avatar species, to predict where a new invasive species might establish. He will use the red swamp crayfish, which is already found in the Great Lakes basin, as an avatar to predict where another potential invader, Chelax destructor, might successfully establish. If successful, this method could potentially be applied to other potential invaders, including fish, aquatic plants, and other macroinvertebrates.
Pollution
Jen Fisher of Indiana University Northwest will investigate whether pollution from failing septic systems might be affecting microbial communities on beach sand, ultimately posing a risk to human health. Her work will be focused in northeast Indiana.
An Li of the University of Illinois at Chicago will assess presence of microplastics in Lake Michigan sediments using samples that have been previously collected and analyzed for other contaminants. Through this work, she hopes to generate protocols that can be applied to sediments in any aquatic system.
John Scott of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center will examine whether microplastics help introduce per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the lower levels of aquatic food webs. His timely work has the potential to affect fish consumption advisories, if it seems likely that PFAS can be transferred up the food web.
December 5th, 2018 by Hope Charters
Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) is now accepting applications for graduate student (PhD or MS) assistantships in aquatic ecology to work with FNR and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant researchers Paris Collingsworth and Tomas Höök. Applications are due January 7, 2019.
Graduate assistants will be co-advised by Collingsworth and Höök and will participate in research projects exploring dynamics of Great Lakes ecosystems, food webs and fisheries. Selected individuals will be expected to work collaboratively with scientists from federal laboratories as well as Purdue University. These projects involve an integration of field studies, laboratory analyses, controlled experiments and quantitative modeling analyses.
Research Topics
Specific research topics include
- Exploring the potential of the larval stage as a recruitment bottleneck for fish in the upper Great Lakes.
- Determining the ecological effects of seasonal hypoxia on food web structure and fish vital rates in central Lake Erie.
Qualifications
Minimum qualifications include
- BS (for MS position) or MS (for PhD position) in Biology, Ecology, Fisheries Science or related field.
- GPA of 3.2 or greater.
- Above average GRE scores.
Salary
Assistantships include 12-month stipend, full tuition coverage and insurance.
Start Date
June 2019.
How to Apply
The positions will remain open until filled. For full consideration, please respond by January 7, 2019 and submit cover letter, CV, GRE scores (unofficial), transcript (unofficial), and names and contact numbers of three references to Paris Collingsworth at pcolling@purdue.edu.
Additional Details
For more information, please contact Paris Collingsworth at pcolling@purdue.edu or (312)886-7449. Purdue University is an affirmative action equal opportunity employer.
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