Eleven
projects were recently selected to receive grants of up to $25,000
each from the New York Great Lakes Research Consortium, a SUNY
organization involving twelve New York colleges and universities.
Faculty and students from the member schools engage in multidisciplinary
cooperation, combining their research facilities and scientific
expertise toward a better understanding of the Great Lakes and
the development of techniques for their protection and restoration.
In addition to five seed grants for research awarded this year,
the consortium is funding one new workshop, two task groups, one
grant to acquire new equipment, one Capstone Fellowship, and funding
to support a new Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River research program.
For more than a century, Great Lakes fishing has occurred in a
context of abundance, crisis and response. The future of the Great
Lakes fishery is uncertain; the challenge is to take into account
the full range of factors so as to optimize the benefits and minimize
the costs of Great Lakes fisheries management. Several of this
years grants were awarded to projects whose focus is on Great
Lakes fish. A seed grant was awarded to Dr. Randal J. Snyder
at Buffalo State College, for his project titled Role of
Lipids in Cold Tolerance of Alewife and Blueback Herring.
The research focuses on alewife and herring, related species
who are not native to the Great Lakes, but have established themselves
as part of the ecosystem of this region. Some years, usually following
harsh winters, thousands of dead alewives wash up on the shores;
it is thought that a combination of poor condition and low temperature
is the cause of these deaths. Because these species have become
an important part of the Great Lakes ecosystem, both as forage
fish and prey for larger fish, the ability to predict their die-offs
has been identified as a critical need in planning for the stocking
of Great Lakes fisheries. Dr. Snyder, and his colleagues at SUNY-Buffalo
and NY Sea Grant, hope to develop models to predict the occurrence
of alewife and blueback herring die-offs so that fisheries biologists
can make informed management decisions regarding Great Lakes fisheries.
For more information:
Dr. Snyder - snyderrj@buffalostate.edu
The Consortium will also give seed money in support of new research
which will apply a promising new technique to study the life history
of Great Lakes fishes. This project, titled Application
of Otolith Microchemistry to In-Situ Assessment of Thermal History
and Metabolic Processes in Great Lakes Fishes,
and led by Dr. William P. Patterson of Syracuse University,
will use a chemical compound to study otoliths, bony structures
in the inner ear of fish, in order to better understand the growth
of these fish. Dr. Patterson and his collaborators at Syracuse
University and SUNY - College of Environmental Science & Forestry,
will look at samples from ten different species of Great Lakes
fish each year. This study will aid in analyzing the effects of
fishery management on the population dynamics of these fish. For
more information:
Dr. Patterson - wppatter@syr.edu
Atlantic salmon was once a major part of New York's fish community
as well as an important economic resource; only a small population
of this species exists within New York State today. Many factors
have been identified as possible causes of their decline, among
them dam building, overfishing, deforestation, decreased water
quality and the introduction of non-native species, such as the
alewife. These factors could continue to impede restoration efforts.
The Consortium will fund a workshop, titled Lake Ontario
Atlantic Salmon Workshop: Biology, Conservation and Restoration,
to bring together members of a task group to exchange information,
focus and coordinate activities, discuss research needs and propose
specific actions that will move them forward on the implementation
of a renewed Atlantic salmon restoration and management program
in the Great Lakes. This workshop, led by Dr. Neil H. Ringler
at SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, along
with colleagues at Cornell University and US Geological Survey,
will take place in the Fall, 1998 at SUNY-ESF, and will consist
of a series of presentations by experts conducting research on
Atlantic Salmon in New York, Canada and the Northeast. For more
information:
Dr. Ringler - nmringle@mailbox.syr.edu
In their last State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference, the US
EPA and Environment Canada rated the ecological health of Lakes
Ontario and Erie's nearshore as mixed or poor and deteriorating.
New research, entitled Assigning Conservation Priorities
to Great Lakes Coastal Habitats Used by Migrating Songbirds,
will be funded. It will focus on some of these habitats and the
effects they may have on migrant birds. The project, led by Dr.
Therese M. Donovan at SUNY College of Environmental Science
& Forestry, involving assigning conservation priorities to
Great Lakes coastal habitats used by migrating songbirds, was
awarded a seed grant for research. Dr. Donovan and her colleagues
at SUNY-Brockport and Braddock Bay Bird Observatory will conduct
extensive research, using Doppler radar technology, to identify
sites along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie that consistently host
large numbers of migrant birds. They will pass this information
along to land managers and conservation agencies in the region.
For more information:
Dr. Donovan - donovan@mailbox.syr.edu
The Great Lakes are plagued by problems associated with certain
substances which persist in the environment and are known to have
toxic effects in living things. Many of the harmful pollutants
of concern travel on the winds and settle or rain onto the lakes.
The sources can be quite distant -- the midwest, southeast and
even Central America. This year the consortium will support research
that deals with airborne toxicity.
A seed grant will be provided for a project, Establishment
of Semivolatile Air Monitoring Network for the Southern Great
Lakes Basin. This research, led by Dr. Jeffrey Chiarenzelli
at SUNY-Oswego, will concentrate on three sites which are
ideally suited to study atmospheric transport and deposition related
to lake-effect precipitation, a dominant weather factor along
the southern and eastern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie. The
accuracy of any model for the Great Lakes could be considerably
enhanced by additional data on contaminant volatilization, migration,
and redistribution. Researchers from SUNY-Fredonia, SUNY-Oswego
and Clarkson University will join Dr. Chiarenzelli in this project
with the ultimate goal of providing quantitative information on
the concentration and composition of organic compounds in air
along the southern shore of the Great Lakes basin, and arriving
at a determination of which factors are of significance. For more
information:
Dr. Chiarenzelli - chiarenz@oswego.edu
Funding will be given to the Atmospheric Transport and Deposition
Task Force led by Dr. Philip K. Hopke of Clarkson
University, which has been researching persistent organic pollutants
with respect to their transport to, deposition in or emission
from Lakes Erie, Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. One of their
objectives is to increase communication between institutions so
as to maximize the opportunities for obtaining support for expanded
studies. This year's task force will include members from Clarkson
University, SUNY-Fredonia and SUNY-Oswego. For more information:
Dr. Hopke - hopkepk@draco.clarkson.edu
The education and empowerment of citizens has been recognized
as an important element in dealing with the problems facing the
Great Lakes. A well-informed government would be better equipped
to lead this community involvement effort. Funding will be given
to
a project involving the Creation of Reference Tools to Increase
Involvement of New York Legislators in Great Lakes Policy
to address the recognized need expressed by the New York Coalition
of Great Lakes Legislators and their constituents. This project,
led by Dr. Susan L. Senecah at SUNY-College of Environmental
Science & Forestry, will work to improve NY legislators' understanding
of Great Lakes problems and hence, greatly increase the opportunities
for them to influence public policy. Dr. Senecah will be joined
by colleagues at the University of Buffalo, in the development
of a chart/map illustrating the relationships among the organizations
and policies influencing the management of New York's Great Lakes,
as well as the creation and maintenance of a web site focusing
on the New York Great Lakes Watershed. For more information:
Dr. Senecah - ssenecah@mailbox.syr.edu
Dr. Margaret Shannon at the University of Buffalo, will
lead a new task force - Examining Governance Processes in
the Great Lakes. Dr. Shannon and colleagues at SUNY College
of Environmental Science & Forestry and the University of
Waterloo, will develop a core group of researchers, scholars,
and practitioners interested and active in Great Lakes governance
issues. One of their goals is to increase the research capacity
and funding for governance research. The task force will develop
a questionnaire to assess how different agency programs are achieving
their goals. For more information:
Dr. Shannon - mshannon@acsu.buffalo.edu
In order to keep up with the most recent technology, the Consortium
has added a new equipment category to the Small Grants program.
This year, funding for new equipment has been granted to Dr.
Joseph Makarewicz at SUNY-Brockport and his fellow researchers
at SUNY-Buffalo and Cornell University. The new equipment, SeaBird
SeaLogger CTD (SBE 25), a research grade profiling system for
coastal and deep water work, will upgrade the capability of the
Consortium to study the waters of the Great Lakes. This acquisition
will allow consortium scientists to work faster, cheaper and with
more precision, in addition to providing the means to compete
with other institutions that have deep water technology. For more
information:
Dr. Makarewicz - jmakarew@acspr1.acs.brockport.edu
Recognizing the importance of supporting promising student
researchers, the Consortium has added a Capstone Fellowship
to help graduate students doing Great Lakes-related research.
Nicolle S. Tulve has been awarded this year's Capstone
Fellowship to assist her in completing a doctoral degree at Clarkson
University. Her research, under the tutelage of Dr. Thomas
C. Young, is focused on contaminants in bottom sediments,
and the natural and man-made activities that can alter the natural
equilibrium of these contaminants. The object of Tulve's work
is to learn more about the interaction of underwater particles
and contaminants, which could ultimately lead to more effective
remediation strategies. For more information:
Ms. Tulve - tulvens@draco.clarkson.edu
Dr. Young - tcyoung@draco.clarkson.edu
Realizing the need to look at the ecosystem as a whole, the Consortium
asked for proposals to study the Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence ecosystem,
especially as it affects human health, economy and well-being.
Dr. David Lean at the University of Ottawa, proposed the
Development of an Integrated Research Program on Lake Ontario
and the St. Lawrence River. He will lead an integrated
research program which focuses on this region. This work will
be a collaborative effort to further develop a binational strategic
initiative toward a linked chemical/biological understanding and
model of this ecosystem. Dr. Lean is joined by a steering committee
from the University of Buffalo Great Lakes Program, SUNY-Brockport,
SUNY-ESF, and the Great Lakes Research Consortium. The objectives
will be to prepare an overview of activities of the researchers
currently working on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River who
would like to be associated with the USA-Canada Strategic Initiative,
and to integrate existing activities funded by many different
agencies into a new initiative to link biological processes critical
to a healthy ecosystem with the influence of toxic chemicals as
they affect human health, economy and well-being. The project
is intended to generate new funds from several agencies in the
USA and Canada. For more information:
Dr. Lean - dlean@science.uottawa.ca
