GLRC Small Grants Program
Funded Projects1997 

Microbial and Metallic Iron Mediated Dechlorination of
Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Sediment

Dr. Roger C. Sokol, SUNY-Albany
Dr. Ronald Scrudato, SUNY-Oswego

The health of the Great Lakes and the people who eat fish from them continues to be threatened by the effects of toxic chemical pollution. One of the most significant pollutants is a class of compounds known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). Exceptionally persistent in the environment, PCBs remain a problem long after their production has been banned and their discharge into the lakes greatly reduced. Because of the difficulties and tremendous expense of cleaning up PCB hotspots in sediments and near shore disposal sites, various methods have been developed to try to reduce their toxicity in place. In a new GLRC project, Dr. Roger Sokol of SUNY Albany School of Public Health and Dr. Ronald Scrudato of SUNY Oswego will conduct research on a relatively new remediation technology that uses microbes to reduce the potential toxicity of PCBs by reducing the amount of chlorine in the compound. Scrudato and Sokol's team are working on a new technique that uses iron to enhance the capacity of microbes to transform more forms of PCBs into less toxic compounds. This project may further our ability to dechlorinate dangerous forms of PCBs which will minimize human health risks in our environment.


Preventing Discharges of Coal Tar and Creosote to Surface
WatersThrough Immobilization of Subsurface Sources

Dr. Susan E. Powers, Clarkson University
Dr. Alan J. Rabideau, SUNY-Buffalo

The Consortium will also initiate new research on another promising remediation technology; this one aimed at preventing the spread of coal tar and creosote to sediments and surface waters in the Great Lakes. Coal tar is a by-product of converting coal to gas. Creosote was distilled from coal tar for use as a wood preservative during the early industrialization of the Great Lakes. Both are present in large quantities in waste sites and often migrate to the lakes through soils and groundwater, fouling the water with an oily sheen and posing a potential health hazard. In this new GLRC research, Drs. Susan E. Powers of Clarkson University and Alan J. Rabideau of SUNY Buffalo will evaluate the feasibility of treating contaminated groundwater by placement of a reactive barrier in a trench between the contamination and the lake. As contaminant groundwater passes through barrier, a chemical/ biological transformation would take place that reduces the toxicity of the groundwater.


Developing Spatially-Explicit Models for Assessing Production Potential of Streams

Dr. Neil H. Ringler, SUNY-ESF
Dr. Charles A. Hall, SUNY-ESF
Dr. Joseph C. Makarewicz, SUNY-Brockport

The ecology of the Great Lakes has gone through many dramatic changes over the last decades as a result of pollution, human intervention into water level fluctuations and deliberate and unintentional modification of the fish community. Lake Ontario is presently again an ecosystem in transition and part of this change includes its streams. Decreased nutrient loading, a result of pollution abatement activities will have an impact on the size and abundance of fishes in Great Lakes and an efficient method for estimating productivity of stream systems will be useful to understand the potential impact of reduced productivity. Consortium researchers, Drs. Neil Ringler and Charles Hall of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Joseph Makarewicz of SUNY Brockport are working to develop spatially-explicit models of stream ecosystems. By combining these two types of data, fish management decisions can be improved in streams of the Great Lakes.


Great Lakes Acoustic Workshop II-
Geostatistics as a Tool in Acoustic Assessment

Dr. John K. Horne, Buffalo State College
Dr. J. Michael Jech, Buffalo State College
Dr. Lars Rudstam, Cornell University
Mr. David MacNeill, NY Sea Grant, SUNY-Brockport

Since the mid-1980s the Great Lakes Research Consortium has organized dozens of research workshops on important issues facing the Great Lakes. The purpose of these workshops is to bring together available information and expertise in a particular topic area and to develop a research strategy to guide the gathering of additional knowledge. This year Dr. John K. Horne of Buffalo State College and his colleagues at Cornell and New York Sea Grant will organize a workshop to further develop the techniques of high tech sonar capable of seeing and recognizing fish swimming beneath the surface of large lakes. The workshop titled "Great Lakes Acoustic Workshop II- Geostatistics as a Tool in Acoustic Assessment." is a follow-up workshop to the two day Consortium-sponsored event held in June, 1997 which was considered highly successful in introducing Great Lakes researchers to the state-of-the-art tool of hydroacoustics. This next workshop, to be held in June 1998 will summarize the current state of knowledge of geostatistics and its potential application to acoustic data analysis. It will also familiarize participants with a basic understanding of geostatistics and introduce them to new computer software on geostatistics.


The First International Blueback Herring Symposium

Dr. Dale Baker, Cornell University
Mr. David G. White, SUNY-Oswego
Dr. Ladd Johnson, Laval University
D. Robert Werner, SUNY-ESF
Dr. Edward Mills, Cornell University Field Station
Dr. Lars Rudstam, Cornell University Field Station
Mr. Randall W. Owens, USGS, BRD
Mr. Robert O'Gorman, USGS, BRD
Dr. Kyle Hartman, West Virginis University
Mr. David B. MacNeill, Sea Grant Program, SUNY-Brockport

A second Great Lakes fishery-related research workshop will focus on Blueback herring, a relative to the alewife, which has recently been discovered within the Great Lakes drainage system . The spread of this exotic species may have serious implications for the fishery of Lake Ontario and other Great Lakes, but the potential for impact has not been determined. The Consortium and New York Sea Grant will co-sponsor the "First International Blueback Herring Symposium" for Great Lakes and Vermont (Lake Champlain) research audiences. The symposium will develop guidelines for monitoring range and distribution, suggesting possible control strategies and summarizing research needs and priorities.

A Task Force for Research:
Atmospheric Transport of Chlorinated Dioxins and Furans

Dr. Michael S. Milligan, SUNY-Fredonia
Dr. Keri Cervantes Hornbuckle, SUNY-Buffalo
Dr. Stephen J. Vermette, Buffalo State College

A task group, led by Dr. Michael Milligan of SUNY Fredonia, will continue to study the under lying physical/chemical mechanisms describing the long range transport of Polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/F) in the atmosphere through a combination of field measurements, laboratory adsorption experiments and mathematical modeling. PCDD/F's have gained much notoriety over the past fifteen years as highly persistent trace pollutants responsible for such health effects as endocrine disruption, birth defects, developmental and behavioral effects, and cancer. They have been detected all over the globe; yet data on atmospheric transport processes, concentrations and seasonal variations are sparse and mechanisms of transport are poorly understood.

A Task Force for Research:
GLRC Research Group on Ecosystem Dynamics

Dr. Joseph V. DePinto, SUNY-Buffalo
Dr. Stephen B. Brandt, Buffalo State College
Dr. J. Michael Jech, Buffalo State College
Dr. Hunter J. Carrick, Buffalo State College
Dr. Thomas C. Young, Clarkson University
Dr. Edward Mills, Cornell University
Dr. Lars Rudstam, Cornell University
Dr. Rebecca Schneider, Cornell University
Dr. Barbara Knuth, Cornell University
Dr. Joseph C. Makarewicz, SUNY-Brockport
Dr. Donald Stewart, SUNY-ESF

Dr. Joseph DePinto of the Great Lakes Program, University of Buffalo will also continue to lead a Consortium task force. This group will seek to develop several research initiatives this year which will contribute to our understanding of the complex dynamics of the Great Lakes ecosystem. In particular, they will continue to develop a quantitative understanding of the relationship between nutrient loading and fish management/productivity in the lake ecosystems. They are also exploring ways for integrating all types of research into a large multi-institutional coordinated program which would also integrate watershed planning with modeling to allow for forecast of management outcomes.

A Task Force For Research:
Comparative Risk & Great Lakes Policy

Dr. W. Henry Lambright, Syracuse University
Dr. Allan Mazur, Syracuse University
Dr. Brenda J. Nordenstam, SUNY-ESF
Dr. Richard Smardon, SUNY-ESF
Dr. William Leiss, Queen's University

A goal of the Great Lakes Research Consortium is to encourage the integrated management of the Great Lakes Basin as a single ecosystem. The focus of this task force, led by Dr. W. Henry Lambright is to assess the interplay between science and politics. There are two countries and multiple states and cities involved and limited resources with which to address health and environmental risks. It is an objective of this task force to establish priorities among the risks, and to decide what should be done and then what can be done. This group of seasoned researchers will focus their energies on a well-defined set of problems, and stimulate the requisite linkages leading to a concrete proposal to NSF or a private foundation.

A Task Force for Research:
Remote Sensing & Ice Dynamics

Dr. Hayley H. Shen, Clarkson University
Dr. Paul F. Hopkins, SUNY-ESF
Dr. Ray Lougeay, SUNY-Geneseo

Remote sensing has begun to play an increasingly important role in many Civil and Environmental Engineering applications. Ice production and movement in the Great Lakes system have a multitude of implications. Ice acts as an insulator, it blocks the solar energy into the lake water, it retards the wind mixing and heat transfer through the lake water, it alters the sediment movement on the lake bed, and creates hazards during the breakup season. This task group, led by Dr. Hayley H. Shen, will hold a workshop for the purpose of bringing together researchers and practitioners with expertise in state-of-the-art and emerging remote sensing techniques, ice dynamics modeling, and lake ecology and hydrology. This symposium will survey current technology to identify topics related to Great Lakes ice that can be studied combining remote sensing techniques with ice dynamics modeling.

A Task Force for Research:
Open Modeling

Dr. John P. Felleman, SUNY-ESF
Dr. James F. Palmer, SUNY-ESF

It has been said that the best hope for sustaining large environmental systems comes from the strong integration of science and democracy. The former relies on research, modeling, monitoring, and peer review; the latter utilizes well informed, structured social discourse as the basis for consensus building and adaptive management. With advances in information technology through use of the internet, "Open Modeling" is evolving as a guidance framework for the co-evolution of environmental science and democracy. New York's Great Lakes have long been a locus of activity in both process model development, and public participation. A critical objective of Dr. Felleman's task group is to establish a formal working relationship with one or more of the ongoing environmental modeling efforts for development of an Open Modeling Testbed. The focus of this testbed is to study the effectiveness of different visualization and computer interfaces on the ability of multiple publics to understand modeling and environmental processes, and participate meaningfully in policy and action program discourse.

A Task Force for Research:
Impact on Land-Use on the Nearshore Ecosystem of Lake Ontario

Dr. D. Dudley Williams, University of Toronto
Dr. Yong Cao, University of Toronto
Dr. Thomas P. Diggins, SUNY-Brockport
Dr. Nancy E. Williams, University of Toronto
Dr. Kenton M. Stewart, SUNY-Buffalo

The nearshore area is of great importance to the overall Great Lakes ecosystem. It supports the highest species diversity within each lake, including many threatened or endangered species. All species of Great Lakes fishes use these waters during one or more critical life cycle stages, and it is a major habitat for other groups, such as water organisms, mammals, and macroinvertebrates. These waters are also the most exposed to a variety of human activites which can impact on many aspects of nearshore ecosystems. This task force, headed by Dr. D. Dudley Williams, will focus on the effects seen at the community and ecosystem levels, and will seek to develop techniques to monitor and assess these effects.