Sarah Zack is joining the IISG pollution prevention team as its new extension specialist.

What do you get when you cross a marsupial and a crustacean? The answer, as you may have guessed from the title, is none other than the opossum shrimp. Otherwise known as the order Mysidia, these creatures’ colloquial classification comes from the brood pouch present in the species’ females. This sets the order apart from other crustaceans, whose larvae are free-swimming.

The inter-species similarities don’t stop there, however, as the tails of opossum shrimp branch off into two distinct parts, resembling those of lobsters. But taken as a whole, this animal most closely resembles crayfish, having one pair of stalked eyes, two pairs of antennae, and eight limbs – the foremost two (known as maxillipeds), function like arms and hands, and are used for filtering plankton and other organic material from the water, while the following six (known as pereopods), are used for swimming. All these features are wrapped up in a relatively small package, with the majority of species ranging from a tenth of an inch to an inch.

Opossum shrimp can and do live in marine, brackish, and freshwater ecosystems, and are found the world over — Great Lakes included. They are benthic (water bottom) and pelagic (open water) organisms that migrate daily, moving downwards towards areas with less sunlight during the day, then returning to higher depths at night.

This curious crustacean is perhaps most well-known for its utility. A short reproductive cycle and a high adaptability to water conditions make opossum shrimp ideal organisms to culture in laboratories. Able to create and sustain large populations with relative ease, they are used as feed for other cultured organisms, like lake trout.

Like the lake sturgeon, opossum shrimp are sensitive to their surroundings. As such, they are often implemented as a way to monitor water quality, with researchers observing physical or behavioral differences in response to pollution.

Brandon Steppan is an intern from the English department at the University of Illinois. 

Update: This article has been corrected. The original version described the opossum shrimp as moving upwards towards areas with more sunlight during the day, then returning to lower depths at night, sometimes forming clusters as they swim. We also updated it to remove the reference to lake trout as a marine organism.

Adrienne Gulley, IISG pollution prevention outreach specialist, meets with five enthusiastic high school students from Peoria, Illinois. Gulley brought along the “EnviroScape,” a plastic model she uses to demonstrate how pollution affects water quality. The students belong to the selective 4-H Spark Tank, a program developed by University of Illinois Extension. Their goal is to “change the face of the South Side of Peoria through a beautification project” by building a hoop house—similar to a greenhouse. The students plan to raise native Illinois plants and vegetables to distribute to the community. Construction kicks off this spring.

Municipalities throughout Illinois have been making determined efforts to conserve water though policy changes, education, outreach, and water-loss reduction strategies. The Illinois Section of the American Water Works Association (ISAWWA) Water Efficiency Committee and IISG assembled seven case studies from the ISAWWA Water Saver award applications to highlight water efficiency achievements.

Algonquin is the third story in our series.

Rapid population growth is forcing Algonquin, Illinois, a city of about 30,000 located 40 miles northwest of Chicago, to reevaluate its water use strategy.

The village developed its initial water conservation program in 2003 at a time when the system was significantly strained. It included outside watering restrictions, public outreach, operations improvements, and a seasonal water rate structure. The program was a success, resulting in a water use reduction of roughly 30 gallons per person/day.

Because ongoing population growth in the village is expected to put upward pressure on water demand, Algonquin’s next step was to update the Comprehensive Water System Master Plan to evaluate the potential of further water conservation efforts to meet long-term water demands. The goals were to evaluate overall water system performance, evaluate current patterns of water use, predict future patterns of water use, and determine the infrastructure necessary to use less water resources.

While stewardship and sustainability are the main drivers of water conservation in Algonquin, village leaders also wanted to understand how an effective water conservation program can result in a reduction in capital expenditures through the timing of capital investments.

The Village of Algonquin Comprehensive Water System Master Plan was completed in 2012 by Engineering Enterprises, Inc. As the plan moves forward, the savings will be significant.

When comparing current water use trends and potential less resource intensive scenarios, the planners found a nearly $6,360,000 capital cost difference and showed that water conservation policy can have a huge impact.

“The Master Plan has been a great resource to refer back to,” said Andy Warmus, Algonquin utilities superintendent.

“I use the document in some fashion every day.  Can’t imagine not having the information at our fingertips.”

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.

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.

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.

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.