“Forty-six House members from both parties recently sent a letter to leaders of a subcommittee that recommends spending on the environment.It requests $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The program usually gets about that much for projects dealing with threats such as toxic pollution and invasive species. President Barack Obama’s 2015 budget would cut it to $275 million.Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan says the program has done much to improve the lakes’ health and now isn’t the time to cut back.”
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In the news: Great Lakes lawmakers lobby for further funding
April 9th, 2014 by iisg_superadminIn the news: Michigan’s White Lake inches closer to getting removed from Areas of Concern list
April 7th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“The lake is one of 14 major sites in Michigan on a list of toxic hot spots in the Great Lakes region. The cleanup work is difficult and expensive, but it’s expected to improve conditions for people and wildlife throughout the region.Most of the work left at this point in the process for White Lake is paperwork. If everything goes as planned, White Lake will be taken off the toxic hot spot list in October, making it the very first in Michigan to complete the cleanup process.”
In the news: Grass carp found to be making their way into the Great Lakes
March 12th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“Grass carp, a plant-eating species of the invasive Asian carp family, have also been found spawning in Lake Erie and its many tributaries…Though fears over invading Asian carp have largely centered on bighead and silver carp — which gulp down large amounts of plankton, the all-important food-source foundation for a healthy aquatic ecosystem — the new study suggests conservationists should pay attention to grass carp too.Grasses are also an important nutritional source for native fish species, and as its name suggests, grass carp could prove detrimental in that department.The U.S. government has already spent upwards of $200 million trying to slow the encroachment of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Many worry their growing presence will turn the Great Lakes into one giant carp pond — ruining ecological diversity and the multi-billion dollar fishing industry in the region. Regional authorities remain in discussion with federal agencies over further mitigation efforts.”
In the news: Lakes Michigan, Huron on the rise
March 11th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“This winter, the abundance of snow and near-record ice cover are the reasons for the rebound in water levels, according to Keith W. Kompoltowicz, a meteorologist with the Corps’ office in Detroit.
Snowfall around Lake Michigan is 30% higher than any time in the last decade, and ice cover on the lake is flirting with a record.On Tuesday, ice on Lake Michigan reached 92.45%, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich. That’s the second highest level since the record of 93.1% in 1977…But the winter of 2013-’14 can only have so much effect on the lakes. Water levels are cyclical and rise and fall due to a series of events over many months and years, Kompoltowicz said.Even if the next six months mirrors the rainy spring of 2013, Kompoltowicz said, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron might reach within a few inches of the lakes’ long-term average. The Corps doesn’t make predictions beyond six months.”
In the news: Targeted bacterium could be the solution to invasive mussels
March 6th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“Now the mussels may have met their match: Daniel P. Molloy, an emeritus biologist at the New York State Museum in Albany and a self-described ‘Bronx boy who became fascinated by things living in water.’Inspired by Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ in high school, Dr. Molloy, now 66, has long been a pioneer in the development of environmentally safe control agents to replace broad-spectrum chemical pesticides.
Leading a team at the museum’s Cambridge Field Research Laboratory in upstate New York, he discovered a bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens strain CL145A, that kills the mussels but appears to have little or no effect on other organisms.As a result, New York State has awarded a license to Marrone Bio Innovations, a company in Davis, Calif., to develop a commercial formulation of the bacterium. The product, Zequanox, has been undergoing tests for several years, with promising results. (Dr. Molloy has no financial ties to the company.)Zequanox killed more than 90 percent of the mussels in a test using tanks of water from Lake Carlos in Minnesota, said James A. Luoma, a research biologist with the United States Geological Survey in La Crosse, Wis. A control group of freshwater mussels, unionids from the Black River in Wisconsin, were unharmed.”
In the news: River otters tell the tale of chemicals affecting the environment
February 11th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“‘Thus otters serve as biomonitors – organisms that contain information on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the environment – of wildlife exposure,’ according to a new study. They also serve as biomonitors for human health because the same toxic chemicals found in otters have also been found in people who eat contaminated fish.The study published in the journal ‘Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety’ found high concentrations of chemical compounds in the livers of 23 otters in central Illinois.Especially troubling were the highest concentrations of dieldrin ever reported in otters anywhere in the United States, said lead author Samantha Carpenter, a wildlife technical assistant at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Dieldrin is one of the organochlorine insecticides banned in 1978. More than three decades later, high levels of the chemicals remain in river sediments and accumulate in the fish that otters and people may eat.The compound has been linked to neurological, behavioral and immune-suppression problems in wildlife. Scientific studies disagree on adverse human effects, but some studies have linked dieldrin to asthma, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer, Carpenter said.”
In the news: Winter cold brings good news for the Great Lakes
February 5th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“Nearly 60% of the lakes are now under a cover of ice, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich.The ice cover could help lake levels this summer, but that is far from certain. And biologists are keeping a close eye on northern Lake Superior in the hope that an ice bridge will link Ontario to Isle Royale.The island is the home to a struggling gray wolf population in desperate need of new genetic stock — and more wolves.One possible effect of so much ice this winter is that come summer the ‘lake effect’ in cities such as Milwaukee, Chicago and Duluth, Minn., could be even cooler.The ice cover this winter is a stark contrast to last winter, when the five lakes had only 38% cover, according to the research laboratory, which tracks ice conditions on the lakes. The long-term average of the lakes is about 50%, according to George Leshkevich, a scientist with the laboratory, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
In the news: Visualizing some of the methods for keeping Asian carp out of the Lakes
February 4th, 2014 by iisg_superadmin“Because of this, engineers have been encouraged to develop just about any solution to keep carp at bay — or out of one.One such solution was the electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which was meant to keep Asian carp from swimming through the CAWS and into Lake Michigan. Of the identified 18 points of entry into the Great Lakes, the Army Corps believes the CAWS point is the most critical.
The barrier consists of three electrodes arranged in a line. These electrodes power a barrier much like an electric fence for dogs. Fish swimming into it receive an electric shock sufficient enough to stun them and keep them out — in theory. According to a report issued by the Army Corps in December, 2013, the barrier is effective against adult carp, but smaller fish of two to four inches long were able to find a loophole……It’s a big risk to take when plans require billions in funding. Still, an appropriate plan may pay off in the long term. Recent studies suggest that controlling the spread of invasive species already present in the Great Lakes can cost up to $800 million annually.”
Great Lakes hold great potential for curing diseases
January 22nd, 2014 by IISGThe IISG-funded study unearthed more than 600 strains of freshwater actinomycete bacteria, making it one of the largest “libraries” of its kind in the world. Murphy—with help from UIC researchers Scott Franzblau, Joanna Burdette, and Lijun Rong—is still testing whether these strains can be used to create new treatments for tuberculosis and other life-threatening diseases. But their initial results suggest that at least a handful of freshwater bacteria could lead to new cures.
Murphy and his team will spend the next few months scrutinizing chemical compounds from 10 actinomycete strains already showing disease-fighting potential and comparing them against known antibiotics, anti-virals, and anti-cancer agents. At the same time, they will keep working through their bacterial library hoping to find even more molecules with drug-like potency.
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