• Develop an optimal methodology for largemouth bass (LMB) muscle hydrolysis using digestive enzymes representing LMB digestive tract
• Evaluate the effect of LMB muscle protein hydrolysate used as first feed on the growth and survival of LMB larvae
• Provide feed/additive manufacturing industry with knowledge and tools required for production of high-quality, cost effective, and well-digested dietary muscle hydrolysate as a source of protein in larval fish feeds

High lake levels have reduced beach sizes across Chicago, but we have little understanding of how much was passive inundation versus sediment remobilization. Ongoing collaborative efforts with the Chicago Park District and the Illinois Coastal Management Program are focused on observations of process-landform dynamics using camera arrays at select beaches and integrating UAS-based imagery, topographic information, wave data, and camera footage. However, while efforts are underway to understand the subaerial dynamics here (e.g., shoreline behaviors), little is known about littoral dynamics and sand transport across the highly fragmented urban nearshore environment, where prior studies have inferred a complex lakefloor geology that includes outcropping Silurian bedrock reefs, heavily scoured and dissected glacial clay tills, and thin, discontinuous sand veneers. We wish to capture the geologic configuration of the nearshore at the surface and map the shallow subsurface architecture as a means of quantifying sand volumes and relating them to the broader geologic template and the urban infrastructure with its influence on nearshore hydrodynamics.

Aquaponics food production systems produce more food on less land, using less water than conventional food production systems. Further, they can be located near population centers, diminishing the carbon footprint of long-distance transportation of foods. Fresh food supplies in urban cities in the US takes advantage of the developing trends among consumers seeking sustainable, fresh, locally grown food supplies. Marine aquaponic systems are capable of producing fresh seafood and plant crops with high market value and strong consumer demand, but few species combinations have been developed well enough for practical applications. In this project, we propose continuing our ongoing efforts to explore marine aquaponics and provide operational guidelines for successful production.

Objective 1 – Complete our developing list of salt-tolerant plant species with a focus on seed availability, recommendations for germination, growth rates, and chemical composition data;
Objective 2 – Evaluate the long-term sustainability of a shrimp/plant marine aquaponic system, and evaluate salinity tolerance of 3-6 halophytic plant crop in marine aquaponics systems; and,
Objective 3 – Determine characteristics of the Asian markets in Chicago for products from marine aquaponic FPS and estimate total poundage of market demand.

The objective of this work is to characterize microbial metabolism across a gradient of impacted sites in southwest Lake Michigan, spanning NE Illinois to NW Indiana.

While microbes tend to alter their environments as ecosystem engineers, their existence is a function of their environment. Any organism has a range of conditions it can tolerate; aquatic microbes and their metabolisms are generally dependent on temperature, pH, light, and resource availability. Humans also tend to significantly alter our environment, and we have shown the ability to cause change much faster than microbes. Increase of the planet’s temperature through greenhouse gas emissions will increase water temperatures and further reduce ice cover over the coming decades. On a finer scale, industrial practices emit pollutants into the coastal air, soil, sediments, and waters. The effects of these actions, prevalent in southwest Lake Michigan,
are poorly understood.

This project will evaluate the impacts of microplastics, in combination with a common environmental estrogen (17-alpha ethinyl estradiol) on critical early life stages of a model species, the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). Specifically, these data will seek to fill knowledge gaps in three areas; (i) the impacts of microplastics on fish at early life stages; (ii) the potential for transgenerational and multigenerational effects of exposure; and (iii) the effects of multiple environmental stressors on individuals. 

My research plan has two main components: (1) Successfully 3D print a single flexible, oleophilic hair structure on a flat surface, using widely available and low-cost manufacturing methods to demonstrate capture performance. (2) Utilize the aforementioned design to scale-up and create a filter with multiple hairs to test printability and capture performance.

Microplastics are commonly found in water ways and are challenging to remove due to the wide range of particle size, shape, and chemical composition. A 2013 study reported that the surface of the Great Lakes accumulate an average of 43,000 microplastics particles per square kilometer and up to 466,000 microplastics per kilometer near major cities. A decade later, nearly 90% of samples taken from the surface of the Great Lakes exceeded safe levels for wildlife and people. This poses serious risk to public and environmental health since 21% of the world’s surface freshwater is contained in the Great Lakes (about 22.7 quadrillion liters). Nearly 40 million people depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. However, because these particles are small and prevalent, often they make their way past water treatment facilities and contaminate drinking water. Current practices for particle removal include bubble, granular, and membrane filtration; however, these have various disadvantages like particle abundance and size dependency or requiring specific environmental conditions, of these the most common issues are clogging and limited-service life. Hence, the need for an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and scalable mechanism for microplastic capture is evident.