March 2nd, 2016 by IISG
Just one short year ago, I was starting my Knauss Fellowship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Congressional and Legislative Affairs. While I had experience working with Congress in past positions and studied wildlife policy in graduate school at Indiana University, it was still a significant transition into this fellowship and working with the federal government.
Luckily, my office had a fellow the previous year and both of my supervisors are Knauss alums, so they understood and appreciated the role of the fellowship in career development. From the moment I began my fellowship with the service, I was treated like a full member of the team and given a robust portfolio of programs to cover, including the Endangered Species Act and the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. I worked closely with service leadership and developed relationships both inside the agency and with Congressional staff (including the many legislative fellows).
With the completion of the fellowship in January, I am very excited about my latest transition into a full-time position with the forest service. I am continuing my work with the Division of Congressional and Legislative Affairs and even sitting at the same desk. I knew that my experiences over the past year would be important in my future career, though the direct connection was more than I had dared to hope for last February.
Alyssa, left, celebrating bat week with colleagues and a Madagascan flying fox.
The Knauss Fellowship has afforded so many opportunities for career development, learning about marine policy, and meeting new people. With fellow-run committees focused on career development and social activities, and even a thesis-writing club, we were inundated with opportunities to engage with each other and other professionals in our field. My class was open to new experiences and friendships, and I look forward to continuing these relationships with my class as we move forward in our careers.
I recently met the newest class of Knauss Fellows, and admit that I had a few pangs of jealously that they are just beginning this great experience. I wish them all the best of luck with their next year and future pursuits.
Alyssa Hausman was one of our Knauss Fellow for 2015.
February 29th, 2016 by IISG
There are reefs in the Great Lakes?
That was my first thought when I sat down to interview for a field technician position in the fall of 2014. I had been working at a tech job at Purdue University, but I felt that it was time for a change–to something that was a bit more interesting to me. When I had the chance to interview to be a field tech on a fish ecology project, I knew that the time for change had arrived. But working on reefs? Coral, colorful, vibrant reefs teeming with a spectacular array of exotic fish species? I asked the post-doctoral fellow conducting my interview, Dr. Mitchell Zischke, if those were the kind of reefs he was talking about.
“Not quite,” said Mitch. “Reefs in the Great Lakes are rocky, made of cobble, gravel, and other stony fragments.” Ah. That’s very different than the vision most people get when they think of underwater reefs. A lot of publicity is directed towards oceanic coral reefs and their current plight worldwide, and rightly so. But I think sometimes that comes at the expense of exposure to unique and threatened environments much closer to home. The reef systems of the Great Lakes are a prime example.
I say this based on my own experiences as a native of the Great Lakes region. I grew up in a small town in western Michigan, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. My family often traveled around the state, spending time at all of the Great Lakes. Yet I never heard mention of any rocky reefs. I’d wager that outside of die-hard fishermen, most citizens of the region haven’t been exposed to our local reefs, either. Going forward, I’m hopeful that a lot of exciting research on the Great Lakes is about to change that fact.
That’s how my current project fits into all of this. It turns out that I liked being a fisheries ecology technician enough that it led directly into graduate school at Purdue University. I am now a Master’s student under the guidance of Dr. Tomas Höök, associate professor at Purdue and associate director of research for Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. Along with many other organizational partners (including Michigan Sea Grant, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the United States Geological Survey, to name a few) we are in the beginning stages of potential rocky reef restoration in Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron.
To understand why reef restoration in Saginaw Bay is a good idea, a little historical background is important. Years ago, Saginaw Bay was the second largest walleye fishery in all the Great Lakes, and had a healthy population of fish spawning on rocky reefs in the bay. These reefs provided many benefits to incubating eggs, including excellent protection from predators. Long-term sedimentation and poor land use led to most of those reefs being lost. This had profound negative impacts on walleye, as well as on other recreationally- and commercially-important fish species. Today, the walleye population has recovered, but the fish spawns almost completely in tributary rivers that feed into Saginaw Bay, rather than the bay itself. Reef restoration would allow walleye to have prime spawning habitat in the bay once more, and hopefully encourage these fish to resume using some of their historic spawning grounds. Beyond the obvious benefits to an increased amount of spawning area, this would also pave the way for a more geographically- and genetically-diverse walleye population. Such diversity could prove very important during times of stress. Of course, many other fish species, such as lake whitefish, would also be able to use restored reefs.
However, before rocky reef habitat could be restored in Saginaw Bay, we needed to make sure that restoration would have a good chance of being successful. Restoration projects are never cheap, and we wanted to be sure that funding was being wisely spent. That’s where my specific project comes in. A small field crew, comprising members of Purdue University (including me, Dr. Zischke, and Jay Beugly, who also serves as an aquatic ecology specialist for Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant) and the USGS, was tasked with assessing current spawning patterns within Saginaw Bay. Essentially, we wanted to see what currently degraded reef sites looked like, whether key species like walleye and lake whitefish were spawning near those degraded sites, whether they were depositing eggs, and whether predators were around to eat those eggs. If we could say that water quality was decent, target species were spawning in the area and depositing eggs, and that egg predators weren’t too abundant, we might have a reasonable shot at successful reef restoration.
We’ve been at it since late 2014, and though results are still preliminary, there are some positive signs. Water quality is good, and some sites look receptive to adding additional reef structure. Spawning walleye and lake whitefish are being found across the bay, and they’re depositing eggs, too. Numbers of fish and eggs are low, but the fact that fish exist to take advantage of potentially restored reefs is hugely important. We’ve also found that egg predators are present, but that the biggest predation risk is probably from large-bodied fish like common carp and catfish. Given these findings, we are optimistic that rocky reef restoration can be successful in Saginaw Bay. Hopefully, restored reefs will attract higher numbers of fish to spawn, while simultaneously providing cracks and crevices to help eggs avoid large egg predators.
If everything goes right, reef restoration in Saginaw Bay could be going on long after I’ve left Purdue. Really, I think that’s one of the coolest things about this project: It has so much potential. With many groups involved, like Sea Grant, and tons of habitat to restore, reef restoration could be the definition of a long-term undertaking. Who knows, maybe I’ll find myself back on the familiar shores of Saginaw Bay one day, working once more on a project that helped launch what I hope will be a long career in fisheries science. For now, I’m just focused on the upcoming field season. It’s the last chunk of field work in our spawning assessment. If we keep finding some of the same patterns, I’m very excited for the future of reef restoration in Saginaw Bay and across the Great Lakes.
February 26th, 2016 by IISG
Not to worry. The Michigan City buoy is receiving first-class care and attention while it spends the off-season in a warehouse at Purdue. PhD candidate, David Cannon, pictured, is cleaning, charging, and repairing the buoy, readying it for its spring launch.
February 18th, 2016 by IISG
Medicine take-back programs just signed on a big-time player: Walgreens.
The retail giant is installing 500 medicine disposal kiosks in Washington, D.C.and 39 states—including Indiana and Illinois. This is the first major initiative by a large pharmacy chain to provide access to medicine take-back programs within the pharmacies on a national scale.
The IISG pollution prevention team has been working for the past nine years with communities and law enforcement to get unused, expired, and unwanted medication out of homes and the environment safely and responsibly by helping to develop collection programs.
So now that Walgreens is pitching in, IISG is all done, right? Not quite.
IISG pollution prevention team educates communities about the issues involved with pharmaceuticals in the environment and provides assistance on how to set up medicine take-back programs. The locations—more than 50 in 4 states—are listed at Unwantedmeds.org. But even with the addition of the Walgreens kiosks, there are still many areas that don’t have access to disposal sites.
“Each community is different,” said Adrienne Gulley, IISG pollution prevention outreach specialist. “Having medicine take-back boxes available in pharmacies is convenient for customers, but the law enforcement-based programs are still critical where Walgreens is unavailable. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for the consumer to properly dispose of their expired or unwanted medication.”
For the past few years, the pollution prevention team has been working with pharmacists and the veterinary community to help them educate their customers and clients on proper disposal methods. Moving forward, IISG will be working with doctors and nurses to help make them more aware of the impacts of improper medicine disposal on human, animal, and environmental health.
The disposal kiosks at Walgreens will all be available by the end of this year primarily at 24-hour stores.
February 10th, 2016 by IISG
The Illinois Water Resources Center (IWRC) and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) are pleased to be among the group of researchers and outreach professional to receive the 2016 Team Award for Excellence from the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Science. The award recognizes the team’s ongoing collaboration on the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.
“We are proud to have facilitated the development of the most comprehensive and collaborative approach to nutrient loss reduction in the state’s history,” said Brian Miller, IWRC and IISG director and one of six staff members named in the award. “We look forward to working with the University of Illinois team, state agencies and other stakeholders to ensure strategy goals are met in the coming years.
Award winners also include University of Illinois Extension Director George Czapar as well as researchers from the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and Agricultural and Consumer Economics who led a scientific assessment of current nutrient loads and cost-effective reduction strategies.
Released in 2015, Illinois’ strategy is a blueprint for improving water quality at home and in the Gulf of Mexico by reducing nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields, city streets, and wastewater treatment plants. It’s suite of voluntary and mandatory practices are expected to ultimately cut nutrient loading to rivers and streams by 45 percent.
The plan was developed by a working group facilitated by IWRC and IISG for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Illinois Department of Agriculture. Group members included representatives from state agencies, agriculture, non-profit organizations and sanitation districts.
February 8th, 2016 by IISG
I have always been interested in fish biology, growing up and scuba diving in Massachusetts, but I became interested in fisheries policy through my graduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
My doctoral research focused on Antarctic fish physiology, specifically the blood antifreeze proteins that these fishes have in order to survive in the extreme cold temperatures of the Southern Ocean.
My dissertation research showed a link between environmental temperature and antifreeze protein activity and concentration in different, commonly caught fish species in the Antarctic. One of the largest Antarctic fish species which possesses antifreeze proteins is the Antarctic toothfish (also known as the Chilean seabass).
We caught just seven of these fish during my first field season, and I learned about the toothfish fishing industry and the international politics regarding Antarctic resource management which falls under the jurisdiction of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)
. I wrote grants to study this little-understood fish while at the University of Illinois and tried to learn as much as I could about CCAMLR and the research that goes into making policy decisions.
I am very excited to be a 2016 Knauss Fellow in the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection. I was placed within this office after a grueling but rewarding week of presentations and interviews in Washington, DC. I traveled to DC with 53 other incredible finalists for placement with hosts in the federal government. We heard presentations from the 56 possible host offices on projects ranging from fisheries, satellites, climate change, habitat, and many more. Over the next two and a half days I interviewed with 15 different offices, the majority of which were within NOAA, and by Friday I selected placement in the Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection.
Though I do not know specifically what I will be working on, some of the projects could include the US-Mexico and US-Canada bilateral trade agreements, work with the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, work with CCAMLR, and fishery bycatch policy. I will have a year of intensive international fisheries policy training where I am sure to learn a lot.
Lauren Fields, University of Illinois’ 2016 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, received her PhD from the Department of Animal Biology at the University of Illinois in May. She started on February 1, 2016 with NOAA in Maryland.
For more information about the Knauss fellowships and other opportunities, please visit the Fellowship and Scholarship page.
February 3rd, 2016 by IISG
Members of IISG’s aquatic invasive species team are introducing their newest risk assessment suite of products today at the Illinois and Wisconsin Landscape Show in Schaumburg, Illinois.
The brochure, wallet card, and poster distill all the complexities of the species assessments done by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, Loyola University Chicago, and the Nature Conservancy. IISG facilitated the meetings between the researchers and retailers to ensure that the tools developed for them to use to assess the risk for invasion met the states’ needs.
These assessments provide retailers and hobbyists with information about whether a plant or animal imported for the aquarium and water garden trades poses a threat to the states’ waterways.
Greg Hitzroth, IISG aquatic invasive species outreach specialist will be urging retailers at the conference to not sell or grow plant species that are known to be invasive.
“The retailers and wholesalers—the types of folks who are at this trade show—want to do the right thing,” Hitzroth said. “And we’re here to help them.”
You can download the materials for free from these links! If you need a specific quantity, contact Danielle Hilbrich, aquatic invasive species outreach specialist, at hilbrich@illinois.edu.
What’s in Your Water Garden – Wallet Card
What’s in Your Water Garden – Brochure
What’s in Your Water Garden – Poster
January 22nd, 2014 by IISG
The cure for some of the world’s deadliest diseases may be living at the bottom of the Great Lakes. This is the theory Brian Murphy, a medicinal chemist at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), set out to test in 2012 when he scoured Lake Huron in search of a largely unexplored type of bacteria that may hold the key to new treatments.
The IISG-funded study unearthed more than 600 strains of freshwater actinomycete bacteria, making it one of the largest “libraries” of its kind in the world. Murphy—with help from UIC researchers Scott Franzblau, Joanna Burdette, and Lijun Rong—is still testing whether these strains can be used to create new treatments for tuberculosis and other life-threatening diseases. But their initial results suggest that at least a handful of freshwater bacteria could lead to new cures.
A microbe’s medicinal power lies in the small compounds they make to defend themselves, which can destroy cell walls, prevent DNA from replicating like it should, and more. Current treatments for many diseases are built around the chemical defenses used by land-based cousins of the bacteria Murphy has collected. But some treatments, like the ones for tuberculosis, require patients to be on a complex cocktail of antibiotics for months at a time. Worse still, a growing number of diseases are now resistant to standard drugs. The hope is that some of the freshwater bacteria in Murphy’s library might create molecules that dangerous pathogens have yet to evolve defenses against.
“Researchers have been operating on the assumption that bacteria in the lake are nearly identical to what are found on the land,” said Murphy. “But we think these freshwater strains are likely to produce new molecules that target diseases in different ways.”
Murphy and his team will spend the next few months scrutinizing chemical compounds from 10 actinomycete strains already showing disease-fighting potential and comparing them against known antibiotics, anti-virals, and anti-cancer agents. At the same time, they will keep working through their bacterial library hoping to find even more molecules with drug-like potency.
Just as important as finding new molecules is learning more about the relationship between a microbe’s chemical properties and where it lives. This is where Murphy’s library of strains really comes in. Its size and diversity will help reveal both whether aquatic actinomycete bacteria are significantly different than their land-based counterparts and if strains found in different lakes use unique chemical defenses.
“One of the biggest barriers in the discovery of new drugs is knowing where to look,” said Murphy. “Knowing where bacteria populations are similar and where they are different helps us figure out exactly where to sample when looking for new drugs.”
Because of his collection, Murphy has already discovered that the makeup of actinomycete communities in Lake Huron varies both by location and depth, a diversity that makes the lake a potentially important site in the hunt for new cures.
September 17th, 2012 by IISG
IISG staff members and interns traveled to the Indiana shoreline earlier this week to help launch an environmental sensing buoy four miles off the coast of Michigan City, Indiana. They were joined by researchers from the Purdue University
School of Civil Engineering, who partnered with IISG to develop the buoy, and staff at the Indiana DNR.
IISG Science Writer Anjanette Riley was there for the launch and recalls the day’s events:
“If I had to describe the launch process in one word, it would be ‘meticulous.’ The approximately 6-hour process was carefully divided into a series of steps: Steps for the final calibration of the real-time data sensors, steps for placing the 2,000 lb anchor on the lake bottom, steps for rigging the buoy up to be dragged behind the DNR boat to its final destination in 62-foot water, and still more steps for attaching it to the anchor’s line. To a passer-by the process must have looked a little hectic, with people running around securing lines and popping back-and-forth from the building to test light-sensitive sensors. And maybe things were a little chaotic at times, but a chaos complete with checklists.
This is not to say that the day played out without any hiccups. In fact, the whole thing almost had to be scrapped for another day because of a malfunctioning light needed to announce the buoy’s existence to nearby boaters. Cary Troy, the lead researcher on the project, had brought four of these lights from Purdue just in case one didn’t work. Four proved to be too few, though, when the time came to install it atop the buoy. We knew going in that the buoy might not be able to go out that day. There was always the chance that the weather would not be on our side that morning and we would need to wait for another, better day. But with the weather the best it had been for several days, the anchor sitting on a barge at the Port Authority ready to be carried out into the lake, and the buoy all working as planned, a small but important light stood in the way.
To keep the day moving, the team decided to divide and conquer. Cary Troy and graduate student Jun Choi rode the four miles out into the lake on a flat barge carrying the buoy’s anchor, hoping to at least get that in place on the scheduled day. A temporary buoy was attached to the anchor to mark the location and hold the line that secures to buoy in place until the real thing was ready.
Meanwhile, IISG’s Naoki Wada set about trying to repair the light. As a summer intern, Naoki was a key player in the buoy development and continued to lead the way during much of the launch. Step one in the repair process was to hook the light up to a car battery to charge. Once out on the lake, the light is designed to charge during the day using a series of solar panels and flash in 15-second intervals at night or when overcast. That afternoon, though, the sun was replaced with the faster-acting car battery. Step two involved making a series of alterations to the light to test why the now-charged light was not consistently functional. In the end, the launch date was saved when Naoki discovered that removing an internal screw was enough to keep the light working as designed.
With the light finally mounted in place, IISG and crew from the Indiana DNR set about rigging the buoy to safely lower it into the water. The weight and the sensitivity of its sensors meant that the crew needed to be in constant control of the buoy’s movement from the minute it entered the water—something much easier said than done with a machine designed to float. The rigging and lowering process was perhaps the most meticulous part of the day, with as many as eight people at one point tying rope, connecting chains, checking the balance of weight, supporting the buoy into the water, and preventing it from floating under the boat as it drove away from the dock.
The same ropes and chains were then used to transport the buoy four miles into the lake at about 5mph, the manufacturer-recommended speed for dragging a buoy behind a boat. The last step was to remove the drag lines and attach the buoy to the anchor line put in place earlier that day in a process that looked much like the rigging of an hour earlier acted out in reverse. Months of work planning, developing, and launching the buoy were capped off by the whole launch crew snapping photos of the now-operational buoy as the DNR boat sped back to shore.”
To read more about how the buoy will support research into the weather patterns and biology of Lake Michigan and help beachgoers plan visits to Indiana’s shores, visit IISG’s news page.
Special thanks to Naoki Wada for his extensive work ensuring the buoy was operational in time for last week’s launch and overseeing the day’s events. Additional thanks to Brian Breidert, Randy Brindza, Ben Rhoda, and Jamie McNeill IV from Indiana DNR.
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