• Assess water supply management options for northeastern Illinois

• Reconstruct the chronology of invasions of Orconectes rusticus and other nonnative crayfishes into the Great Lakes
• Use genetic analyses of the regions in Lake Michigan where O. rusticus is displacing O. propinquus
• Predict the future distribution of O. rusticus in the Great Lakes by comparing the environmental requirements of O. rusticus (especially substrata) with the characteristics of Great Lakes littoral zones

• To test the hypothesis that human and animal E. coli strains are distinguishable
• To screen and select appropriate primers
• To build a small RAPD (random amplied polymorphic DNA) fingerprint database for E. coli from human and nonhuman sources
• To identify landmark DNA patterns
• To determine the sensitivity and applicability of this technology

The researchers used molecular tools to characterize microbial communities in the changing biogeochemistry of Lake Michigan (2012-2015) and across the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Story: IISG researchers identify microbes throughout the Great Lakes

• Investigate the genetics of populations of Phragmites australis
  (common reed) throughout the Lake Michigan coast of Illinois and Indiana

• Determine the ecological changes caused by nonindigenous species that were introduced and established in the Great Lakes via ship ballast discharges
• Quantify the minimum net financial cost (based on market costs) imposed on
  the Great Lakes region by shipping-mediated nonindigenous species
• Forecast the potential range in North America for a subset of high risk species
• Assess how unquantified costs (for currently unstudied species, for market costs imposed outside the Great Lakes region, for non-market costs imposed within and outside the Great Lakes region) might change our evaluation of the net cost of the species and net value of shipping
• Develop policy recommendations and an outreach strategy to inform the public and policy-makers as decisions are made about the management of ballast and the St. Lawrence Seaway