October 17th, 2016 by IISG
The National Sea Grant Program is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) is looking back at its own origins through the eyes of its first leader.
In 1982, IISG had its modest beginnings as a small marine extension project, through a partnership of the University of Illinois, Purdue University, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Robert Espeseth was at the helm from 1982 through 1994. Now a retired University of Illinois professor of leisure studies, he recalled those early years as both part happenstance and part destiny.
Like a star football quarterback recalling his glory days, he shared the play-by-play of the creation of IISG.
“Jim Peterson, who had a joint appointment with Purdue and Indiana, and I were up there at a Great Lakes regional workshop for recreation specialists in 1980,” Espeseth recalled. “And one of the fellows from Michigan was getting funding out of Michigan Sea Grant, and he said, ‘Have you guys ever looked into that?’ And we said, ‘What is it?’ And he said, ‘With Illinois and Indiana not being in the program they’re anxious to complete the Great Lakes for programs covering all the shoreline.’”
And with that exchange, the pursuit to “cover the shoreline” began.
Peterson and Espeseth were both going to be in Washington, so they decided to pay a visit the National Sea Grant Office in Silver Spring, Maryland.
They arrived without an appointment, but Espeseth wasn’t going to leave without meeting the director, and he had the perfect in.
It just so happened that the National Sea Grant Program director, the late Ned Ostenso, was a coxswain in the boat Espeseth rowed during his days at the University of Wisconsin.
“’He’s really busy, he wouldn’t have time,’” Espeseth recalled being told.
“I said, ‘Just call him and tell him Bob Espeseth is here.’ So he did and Ned said, ‘Bring him on up!’”
Ostesno encouraged Espeseth and Peterson and explained how anxious he was to get Illinois and Indiana onboard, but he warned that it would be a long process.
How right he was.
Their first application in 1981 was turned down for not having a strong research component and because the two universities, Purdue and Illinois, weren’t very supportive of the Sea Grant mission. It wasn’t until 1982 that IISG finally got approved as a marine extension project.
Yet, there was still some uncertainty about the focus and direction of the program.
Initially the emphasis was on aquaculture, recreation and shoreline tourism—topics that were not as popular with other Sea Grants. IISG really took off once it added more research-focused areas like invasive species, water quality and pollutants.
The outreach staff grew from a single specialist to a team of over 20, located at universities and agencies in the two states. In 1997, IISG was awarded College Program status by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Espeseth smiled as he thought back to those early days.
“I just talked to Jim Peterson the other day and he said laughing, ‘Yeah, that was really a shot in the dark!’ But at the behest of our compatriot up there in Michigan, that’s how it got started.”
October 12th, 2016 by IISG
This story first appeared on LakeScientist.com.
The Limno Loan program, overseen by the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, is making it easier for educators around the Great Lakes to teach their students about freshwater science. Not only that, but it’s also inspiring youngsters who have never gotten to use real scientific gear.
The program, which launched in the 2011-2012 school year, began after suggestions from teachers taking part in a science workshop on the Lake Guardian Research Vessel. The workshop on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ship led them to think that it’d be a great idea to get some of the same gear into the hands of their students.
The Limno Loan program of today is pushing the boundaries of success, providing four Hydrolab DS5 water quality sondes to high school and middle school teachers around the Great Lakes. Each gets the sondes for about two weeks, including shipping time to and from the Sea Grant, to use in their lesson plans.
That first year, the program only had about five teachers who checked out sondes. This year, more than 20 have already signed up and the pace signals to program managers that nearly 40 could use them by the end of the school year.
“High school and middle school students use them the most. That’s the most appropriate age for this type of equipment,” said Kristin TePas, community outreach specialist with the Sea Grant. She says the youngest who’ve used the Hydrolabs were fifth graders. “Most I’d say probably just deploy them in a river or small water body but some have rented boats to take their students out onto lakes.”
When that’s the case, it’s common that the educator secures some sort of grant to cover the cost. And there are usually educational discounts that can help.
“That is one of the hurdles to getting them out there,” said TePas. “You need to have money to do those field trips.”
Loaning the sondes out to teachers provides a substantial cost savings over purchasing. Each one records a standard set of parameters, including temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, turbidity and depth.
The measurements are incredibly intriguing to students, who can see how their local water body is doing in real time. But since most of the sampling trips hit ponds on campus or streams nearby, depth is not as important as the other data coming in.
“For some, the lesson is just doing a pond day. … Some are just doing a snapshot in time. Others have a monitoring program and they’re comparing the data that they’re getting,” said TePas. “They might compare between two sites or between different areas. It’s more of a comparison spatially than temporally.”
TePas points out that the sondes have a lot of advantages over other methods the kids may have used in the past. Water quality testing kits often use tablets or strips that can introduce complexity. And the projects sometimes take longer because of that.
One big advantage that the Limno Loan program provides to school kids is that they actually get to use real scientific gear.
“For some reason, just using equipment that’s used by real scientists gets them more excited. It’s instantaneous,” said TePas. “They’re able to see right away what the status of the particular lake is.”
The teachers benefit as well. Long before students get their hands on the sondes, Sea Grant officials give them hands-on training to use the gear.
The training is provided during workshops, TePas says, typically during other activities in partnership with local groups. Because of that, they can take various formats, but the training is consistent throughout.
TePas says it usually starts with the parameters, covering what they measure and what their levels mean when it comes to aquatic health. A few suggestions for activities or coursework that the teachers could use are also thrown in.
“Then we show them the logistics of using the equipment,” said TePas. “The only thing they have to calibrate is DO (dissolved oxygen) when they get it.”
The busy season for the Limno Loan program typically coincides with the school year, it seems. Most of the sondes get checked out in September and October during the fall. When winter comes, TePas and others can’t send them out because of the risk of frost damaging the sondes and their sensors. But things pick back up with educators once again borrowing them in April, May and June.
With those restrictions, it’s not likely that the sonde-sharing program could get any bigger than it is currently. The equipment also gets used by Sea Grant educators when not in use by teachers.
But it’s certain that the program is providing benefits for teachers and students in the Great Lakes. In just the few years it’s been running, TePas says the sondes have gone from schools in New York to Minnesota and everywhere in between.
“First and foremost, I want to increase water quality literacy. … I hope at least they take away a better understanding of water quality. So why do we care, why do we measure this stuff?” said TePas. “And if we had some budding scientists come out of this, that would be awesome.”
About Daniel Kelly
Daniel covers monitoring, tech and everything in between as editor of the Environmental Monitor. You can also find his work on Lake Scientist. Connect with him on Twitter @danielrkelly.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
October 4th, 2016 by IISG
Every month, the Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL), a close partner with IISG, selects an outstanding scientist who embodies the CGLL mission and inspires people to take action to improve the health of the Great Lakes watershed.
This post originally appeared on the CGLL website.
Tim Hoellein
Associate Professor
Research Institution: Loyola University Chicago
Home state: Illinois
What got you interested in science and how did you end up as a Great Lakes scientist?
My interest in ecology is firmly rooted in where I’m from. I grew up in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, near Erie, and later lived in Pittsburgh and went to college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. My experiences in natural areas were places like Presque Isle, Point State Park, and Seneca Rocks. These are some of the most beautiful places in the world. The lakes, hills, rivers, and four seasons speak directly towards a sense of identity for those of us from the area. It is a landscape of extremes, because this region also has a heritage of heavy industry. Manufacturing and mining are important components of our cultural identity and provide the basis for commerce and quality of life. However, the history of mineral extraction, manufacturing, and contaminant storage left a legacy of insidious pollution throughout the region. My motivation for research in water pollution is rooted in that view so common in the Great Lakes and western Pennsylvania: the green and blue of Presque Isle in one direction and the smoke and metal of Erie’s industrial waterfront in the other. My overarching career goal is to work towards a restoration of ecological integrity within the urban and industrial areas where we work and live.
Describe your research related to the Great Lakes.
I study the interaction between common pollutants and the organisms living in streams and rivers of the Great Lakes region. Water quality in the lakes strongly depends on what we put into the tributaries. The pollutants I study include nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, which when in excess contribute to noxious algae blooms in the lakes, and small plastic particles, which affect microorganisms, insects, and fish that sustain aquatic food webs. In particular, I’m interested in how those materials move through streams and rivers, and whether they can be broken down, processed, or retained in streams before they go downstream. This requires first determining the sources of nutrients and microplastic, then measuring the interactions with those materials and microorganisms active in decomposition, and then determining how far downstream the chemicals are transported and how they are incorporated into food webs.
Describe an experience you have had working with educators or the community. What was something that surprised you or that you especially enjoyed about the experience?
I was fortunate to spend a week on Lake Michigan aboard the research vessel Lake Guardian, with a group of teachers from throughout the Great Lakes. We collected samples from the surface water and sediment throughout the lake, and I walked the teachers through the process of isolating plastic particles, including digestions, filtration, and counting particles on the microscope. One of my favorite things about the experience was the enthusiasm that the teachers brought to topic, and how each of them used their own unique talents to come up with creative ways to explain our work in their classrooms. One of the teachers brought a video camera to interview me, detail the collection and counting processes, and give his students 
and understanding of how and why we were doing this work. Another used video editing skills and a Go-Pro camera on the sampling equipment to put together fantastic videos of the devices we sent to the bottom of the lakes. This reinforced to me that teachers are at their best when they are using their talents, enthusiasm, and dedication to convey information in creative ways. I try to carry that spirit with me in my role as a teacher in the college classroom.
Why do you think it is important for scientists to share their research with educators?
In my role as a scientist and teacher, I’ve added to my focus on my studies and students, by looking for more creative ways to share the mission of my work, which includes community service, speaking with students of all ages, and engaging the general public and teachers whenever possible. I’ve found the time spent doing this spreads the message of the research to a broader audience, and deepens my appreciation for the career I’ve developed. Speaking with educators like those on the research cruise on the Lake Guardian was one of the best ways for me to communicate in this way, as the teachers can take that information to their schools and classrooms.
What do you think are the most critical skills for students interested in a career in science?
Science requires a combination of lots of different skills. There are the obvious ones like attention to detail, curiosity about the natural world in all its forms, and the ability to think logically. One often overlooked ingredient for making a good scientist is an open mind with creative impulses. In order to make the step from one project to another, or the first step in a new project, a scientist has to come up with a new question to answer. This requires being interested in lots of different topics, being able to think about combining facts and ideas in new ways, and then creatively and carefully explaining those ideas to collaborators, funding sources, and students.
Contact Tim Hoellein at thoellein@luc.edu.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
September 27th, 2016 by IISG
Caitie Nigrelli, IISG environmental social scientist, was recognized with two Bronze Medal Awards from U.S. EPA Region 5 for her work as part of the East Branch Grand Calumet River remediation and restoration project team and the Lincoln Park area and Milwaukee River Channel remediation and restoration project team.
To learn more about Nigrelli’s participation in these projects, check out past coverage of the Grand Calumet River and of Lincoln Park.
Region 5 of the EPA covers six states surrounding the Great Lakes: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. A full list of the teams is below.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
September 12th, 2016 by IISG
We’re excited to welcome Mitchell Zischke, our new research and extension fishery scientist! He will be located at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus. The focus of his research, extension, and teaching program is the biology, ecology, and socioeconomics of fisheries.
“I’m excited to be joining the IISG team. It’s great to be part of such a diverse team working towards conserving and promoting Lake Michigan,” Mitchell said.
“The southern shores of Lake Michigan with its tall dunes, white sand, and blue water reminds me quite a bit of the east coast of Australia—well except for the coral reefs and animals that can kill you…”
Mitchell’s work primarily focuses on the Great Lakes where he employs laboratory and field-based tools to explore population dynamics and ecology of fish species such as lake whitefish, walleye, yellow perch, and salmonid species. He also uses survey data to explore changes in recreational fishery characteristics such as catch rates and angler satisfaction. His extension program aims to increase communication among fisheries, researchers, managers, and other stakeholders by hosting public workshops and developing products such as online data portals.
Mitch also has extensive experience in tropical marine fish and fisheries. He has conducted research on pelagic species such as wahoo, mackerel and tunas, and estuarine species such as blue threadfin. He was worked for state and federal fishery management organizations in Australia.
Mitchell obtained a Bachelor of Science (honors) majoring in tropical marine science in 2006 and a PhD in fisheries science in 2013, both from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
September 6th, 2016 by IISG
The R/V Lake Guardian’s recently completed survey of all five Great Lakes is not an unprecedented feat. In fact, this survey—which collected samples at over 100 stations this August alone—has taken place twice a year since the early 1980s, once each spring and again in summer.
Something that is new, however, is how much of the work is accessible to us landlocked lovers of the Great Lakes.
As the person at the helm for the @LakeGuardian Twitter account, I was overjoyed to spend the first nine days of August on board for the Michigan and Huron legs of this year’s summer survey. Officially called the Open Lakes Water Quality Monitoring Survey, this particular research cruise is important to highlight because it brings together scientists from around the basin to focus on contributing research to a long-term monitoring program that has been assessing the health of the Great Lakes for over 30 years.
The fast-paced, round-the-clock nature of research cruises—especially one of this magnitude—hardly allows time for the scientists or crew to communicate the work they’re doing.
But for me, being in the middle of all the action was the perfect time to gather and produce material to share with the Lake Guardian’s Twitter followers. Using the hashtag #SummerSurvey2016, I chronicled the exciting, enlightening, and at times obstacle-laden journey of the survey through live Tweeting updates, photos, and videos from the Guardian’s sampling decks and onboard labs.
Working first and foremost as science personnel for the EPA water quality program, I labored 12-hour shifts each day. From 4 p.m. until 4 a.m., I had to suit up in steel-toed boots, a life vest, rubber gloves, and hard hat every time the ship arrived at a station and head out to the rosette deck to collect the water samples taken from several depths and specific layers of the water column.
Bringing milk-crates full of water samples back into the wet lab, I then had one of two tasks: filter the water and preserve it for four different nutrient analyses or run board chemistry to determine the pH, conductivity, alkalinity, and turbidity of each sample.
While this water-quality portion of the survey is being conducted, samples are taken simultaneously on the fantail, or back of the boat, to collect plankton and sediment. Any station reached after the sun goes down is also sampled for Mysis, an aquatic animal that resembles shrimp and is only active at night.
All three onboard labs are constantly buzzing with sample processing and preserving—with researchers doing things like extracting chlorophyll a or flash-freezing microbial cells in liquid nitrogen.
In every spare moment I tried to capitalize on the flurry of activity relating to both science and ship life. Showing off the research as it’s happening, making it accessible and informative, is the best way to tell the important story of the work being done to monitor and protect the Great Lakes.
By the time I left, the Lake Guardian was preparing for her next trip, the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative. The scientists have already started #CSMI2016, so be on the lookout for updates!
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
August 31st, 2016 by IISG
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Illinois, home to 25,000 acres and more than 29 actively managed water bodies, now displays over 120 signs bearing the Be A Hero—Transport Zero™ (BAH) message. The change from the older “Protect Your Waters” signage grew out of the recent statewide adoption of BAH as the primary invasive species awareness campaign in Illinois.
Illinois law was changed on January 1, 2013 to prevent the spread of invasive aquatic plants and animals by boats, trailers, and vehicles.
Dan Grigas, a fisheries ecologist at the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, was heavily involved in getting the signs installed with the help of Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The signs also serve as an important reminder to boaters to follow the law that makes it illegal to leave a waterbody with aquatic plants or animals attached to a boat or trailer.
“We’re trying to keep everybody on the same message,” Grigas said. “And now that there are more signs in places where there’s boater access, people won’t be able to say to law enforcement, ‘I didn’t know.’”
In 2013, Pat Charlebois, IISG aquatic invasive species coordinator, and her team developed the campaign that encourages recreational water users to take simple steps—remove, drain, and dry—after a day on the water.
An IISG survey of boat show attendees found that people who have heard these messages are more likely to take action to prevent the spread of invasive species.
“We’re excited that DuPage has joined the campaign in such a big way,” Charlebois said.
“We gladly welcome new partners to Illinois’ Be A Hero campaign—terrestrial and aquatic!”
August 28th, 2016 by IISG
The first thing IISG Assistant Research Coordinator Carolyn Foley does each morning is feed her kids. Then, while toast is toasting or oatmeal is warming up, she checks the IISG real-time buoys.
“Jayson Beugly, Angela Archer, and I all monitor the buoys to make sure they’re transmitting OK,” Foley said. “But I also look for cool things that are being captured.”
Foley shares these “cool things” via the @TwoYellowBuoys Twitter feed that was conceived during a 2015 IISG staff meeting.
“Jay and I were sitting next to each other during a talk about engaging with social media,” Foley recalled. “He turned to me and said, ‘We should make a Twitter account for the buoys.’ And we both began to laugh.”
Carolyn admits she didn’t know much about Twitter before starting @TwoYellowBuoys, but it seemed like a great platform for communicating the graphs and images constantly generated by the buoys.
“I think visually, and my favorite part of writing scientific manuscripts is putting together graphs in order to tell a story. I hope that seeing how the data illustrate trends and phenomena helps people better understand how scientists use the data to answer complex questions,” said Foley.
“And it doesn’t hurt that looking at the webcam pictures reminds me why I do what I do, especially when I haven’t been able to get near the water lately.”
IISG owns and operates two nearshore buoys in Lake Michigan, one in Michigan City, Indiana and another in Willmette, Illinois. The weather buoys serve a variety of audiences, from the National Weather Service to recreational water users. Data from the buoys, including information on water temperature, wind speed, wave height, solar radiation, and more, is transmitted every 10 minutes.
Foley is especially partial to posting thermocline data on Twitter because she knows anglers make decisions based on water temperature.
The buoy dashboards provide this data in both numerical and graphical form, and users can even access historic data. In addition, webcam images are captured every hour during daylight hours and shared online.
Using @TwoYellowBuoys, Foley has featured local and Lake Michigan-wide comparisons of water temperatures, air temperatures, wave heights, wind speeds, and more. She also pulls together images from the webcams atop the buoys to share with followers.
“It’s not up to us to predict what’s going to happen—the National Weather Service and others use the data for that purpose,” said Foley.
“But to be able to visualize what has happened and link it to real things that people have experienced, like storms or temperature shifts, is really fun and hopefully neat for people to see and understand.”
Carolyn Foley and Abigail Bobrow also contributed to the story. Joel Davenport created the illustrations.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
August 23rd, 2016 by IISG
“The site doesn’t glow!” assured Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (Michigan DEQ) geologist Sarah Pearson, to the relief of local teachers stepping foot on the land of what used to be the Zephyr oil refining facility in Muskegon, Michigan. The site is now home to a fertilizer company.
The 14 educators were taking part in a week-long West Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative that brought them to an area of wetlands that endured repeated oil spills during the decades prior to the 1990s that Zephyr was in business—refining, then switching to bulk storage.
Teachers gather to look at a map of the Zephyr site.
Today there’s little visible indication of those frequent spills, which sometimes resulted in fires. Now and then you can still catch a whiff of oil or spot some sheen on the ground, but for the most part the landscape is picturesque.
The grasses are tall and the wildlife has started to return. But contamination, including petroleum products and heavy metals like lead and copper, remain just out of site in the sediment of Muskegon Lake.
“The funny thing is that you knew it existed, back in the day. But when we drove back there, you couldn’t see it. So it’s more out of sight, out of mind,” said Shannon Delora, Muskegon area transition coordinator for students in special education.
“Unless you are taken there, you don’t know all that’s happening, the good and the bad of it all.”
Tanks that at one time stored oil by Zephyr are now used by a fertilizer company that owns the land.
Ben Wegleitner, IISG social science outreach assistant, was on hand to introduce the latest version of Helping Hands, a curriculum that engages upper elementary and high school students in Great Lakes environmental stewardship. It is designed for schools located in Areas of Concern, like Zephyr, but can be applied to any Great Lakes community where large-scale environmental cleanup projects are ongoing.
The lessons touch on a variety of topics, like the effects of pollution and invasive species, and include hands-on activities.
“If you need an opportunity to get your students out in the field and get involved in natural resources and pollution,” Wegleitner told the teachers, “there’s no shortage of opportunities to get your kids interested. Muskegon is a uniquely positioned area for that.”
The Zephyr cleanup, which is funded through the Great Lakes Legacy Act, involves the U.S. EPA, Michigan DEQ, and IISG. The plan is to remediate 36,000 to 45,000 cubic yards, followed by habitat restoration. It’s slated to get started within the next six months and will take about a year and a half to complete.
“I was very unfamiliar with Zephyr,” said Beth Sipperley, a third grade teacher at Oak Ridge Elementary School.
“To go there and see it and to have the curriculum that really ties into it—one that’s so connected to Muskegon—is great.”
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
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