My doctoral work will evaluate opportunities to replace traditional lawns by more sustainable and ecologically friendly crops in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan area. Specifically, I will  pursue three broad objectives: (1) Use aerial images to identify lawns in Chicago and Evanston and quantify the potential for lawn replacements in the city. (2) Use ethnographic work to assess homeowners’ incentives to replace their lawns with other crops. (3) Conduct an experiment to test the water filtration/retention capacity of different lawn replacements. Support from the IISG Graduate Scholars program would enable me to pursue the second objective. Many research projects related to urban ecology use census and survey data to understand the social aspects of restoration within urban communities. The ethnographic interviewing method involves participant observation which allows for a more determined selection of interviewees as well as a more in-depth line of questioning than the survey data might provide. I will also conduct participant observation for this project which will involve interacting directly with interviewees while they maintain, cultivate, and enjoy their own green spaces.

For this project, crayfish samples, water samples, and sediment samples will be collected in several creeks in the Little Calumet-Galien Watershed representing a variety of environmental exposures. The environmental interactions of crayfish as omnivores and biotic engineers place them in a unique environmental niche. We hypothesize that these characteristics make them a reliable sentinel species. By testing and comparing the bioaccumulation of metals in crayfish tissue, water, and sediments, to dominant species, average crayfish size, and population density, we can reliably predict creek health for metals.

Quantifying the introductory impacts of an artificial reef on the nearshore community in Lake Michigan have not been made a priority in any experimental design. This project aims to mend this lack of understanding by combining biology and geology to create a new understanding of the effects of a newly constructed artificial reef (Rubble Ridges). This will be accomplished by observing the effects of sediment accumulation around a newly constructed artificial reef on benthic community diversity and growth. Sampling at the reef site will include sampling for invertebrates, encrusting organisms, and fish once a month during the sampling season. We will compare the trends from the Rubble Ridges site to the trends from the control site.

The objectives for this study are (1) to determine the difference in abundance and diversity of benthic organisms between the submerged shoreline stabilization structure site and the control site over a 2-year period, (2) to determine if the development of nearshore artificial reefs positively impact benthic communities in Southern Lake Michigan, and (3) to determine if benthic community diversity and abundance changes due to sediment accumulation and changes in sand grain size. We hypothesize that there will be an increase in abundance and diversity in benthic communities at the submerged shoreline stabilization structure site in comparison to the control site, that these artificial reefs will have a positive impact on the benthic communities in Southern Lake Michigan, and that sediment accumulation and larger sand grain size provide suitable habitat areas that will increase the diversity and abundance of the surrounding benthic community. Project managers and scientists can utilize this information in upcoming projects, whose intent is to prevent shoreline erosion, as a means to further understand this relationship.

Toxic levels of ammonia were discharged into the Saline Branch stream on July 13, 2002. This spill subsequently caused a 16 kilometer fish kill in the Saline Branch, and further impacted 52 kilometers downstream in the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River, resulting in an estimated loss of over 115,000 fish. Construction of instream rock structures, bank stabilization, and vegetation enhancements were completed in 2020. Furfural was spilled into Kickapoo in 2001 causing the mortality of 200,000 fish and other species. Instream habitat restoration was completed in 2010. This project included the construction of two artificial riffles, pool scouring keys along the restored stream section to deepen pools within the channel, and bank stabilization measures using riprap and native grass planting to reduce sediment loads into the water. Fish and invertebrate communities have been annually sampled in Kickapoo since 2009, with the most recent sampling completed in the fall of 2022. This project aims to quantitively measure the success of the 2020 restoration projects in the Saline Branch by continuing fish and macroinvertebrate assessments, as well as conduct food web analysis using stable isotope measures within the Saline Branch and Kickapoo Creek to examine ecosystem level impacts. The goal of this research is to utilize the Saline Branch and Kickapoo Creek restorations as case studies for the effectiveness of instream and stream bank restorative construction. The objectives of this study are to (1) measure changes in biodiversity of the stream as a function of the physical restoration in the Saline Branch (2) analyze the food web interactions between the aquatic and terrestrial community as a proxy to stream health in restored and unrestored sections of the Saline Branch and Kickapoo Creek. 

Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) are facing a number of threats, including both climate change and predation by invasive species. Despite these ongoing threats to multiple life stages, research has rarely investigated pressures in combination. When studies do assess one of these threats, they often focus on a single life stage, and it is not often the embryonic stage. Our study aims to understand how climate change could impact predator recognition, memory, and avoidance in the two earliest life stages of lake sturgeon. We will “train” lake sturgeon embryos to recognize a predator using associative learning of olfactory alarm and predator cues. We will also raise the embryos in different thermal conditions. At the embryonic stage, we anticipate that those in the warmest water will exhibit the weakest antipredator behaviors, and those in the coolest will exhibit the strongest. At the larval stage, we anticipate those that were raised in the warmest water will have the weakest memory of the predator, and will lose their antipredator behaviors most quickly, while those raised in the coolest water will retain their memory of the predator the longest. Our research will help inform conservation plans for hatcheries looking to rear early-life lake sturgeon for release into Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes region more broadly.

This project proposes to measure the economic benefit of water quality improvements by applying difference-in-difference analysis to local market outcomes in the Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern (AOC). The implementation of remediation projects in this AOC provides a unique opportunity to observe and compare affected ecosystems and economic outcomes before and after remediation. The analysis will use data on local housing market conditions and socioeconomic outcomes and the timing and location of sediment removal and habitat restoration projects in the Waukegan Harbor AOC.