School of Natural Resources and Environment

Conservation Ecology News & Highlights

U-M researchers to speak during Great Lakes Week in Detroit

Several University of Michigan researchers will be among the speakers at next week's Great Lakes Week in Detroit, a gathering of several organizations concerned with preserving and restoring the health of the Great Lakes. The week's events will include meetings of the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Commission and the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition's Great Lakes Restoration Conference. The events will take place at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel and Wayne State University.

In op-ed article, Scavia outlines ways to reduce annual Gulf dead zones

In an op-ed article appearing this month in NOLA, SNRE Professor Don Scavia talks about the Gulf of Mexico dead zone: its natural and political causes and two possible paths to resolve the annual problem. This year's zone, at 6,800 square miles, would have been larger if not for Tropical Storm Don stirring the waters.

U-M launches collaboration to help Great Lakes cities adapt to a changing climate

Faced with increasing risks of intense storms, heat stress, clean water availability and economic hardship, municipal leaders are seeking high-quality, location-specific analyses to help plan for climate change impacts. That is the focus of a new $1.2 million University of Michigan research project called the Great Lakes Adaptation Assessment for Cities.

Student assesses Mpala project in Kenya

SNRE student Melissa Antokal (M.S./MBA '12) was recently in Kenya to complete a team master'project with other students. On behalf of their client the Mpala Wildlife Foundation, the graduate students researched and analyzed issues around sustainable growth and responsible energy consumption. In a blog post, Antokal writes about how the adage "Location, location, location," used commonly during her previous work in the real estate industry, is also a useful guiding principle for sustainability and growth in the developing world.

Lemos examining Midwest farmers' use of climate information

Assistant professor Maria Carmen Lemos is a co-PI on a new project lead by Purdue University to develop decision-support tools to help corn and soybean growers adapt their practices to changes in climate. Lemos will be focusing on understanding how farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska use, or don't use, climate information and on the role of social networks—farmers, extension agents, and farmers' advisers—on knowledge dissemination and uptake.

Perfecto to receive ESA Diversity Award

SNRE Professor Ivette Perfecto is receiving this year's ERHC Diversity Award from the Ecological Society of America during its Annual Meeting next month.

The award recognizes her "outstanding contributions to increasing current and future diversity in the ecological community"  and is given by the ESA's Education and Human Resources Committee (EHRC). The EHRC Diversity Award recognizes long-standing contributions to increasing the diversity of future ecologists through mentoring, teaching, or outreach.

Growing 'dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico an "ecological time bomb"

A report released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a 2011 Gulf dead zone of at least 8,500 square miles, which would make it the largest dead zone on record, due to increased stream flows from the flooding of the Mississippi River. "Stream flows were nearly double normal during May, delivering massive amounts of nutrients to the Gulf, and that's what drives the dead zone," said Don Scavia, Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute and SNRE professor and a member of NOAA's Gulf hypoxia research team.

Researchers predict record Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" due to Mississippi River flooding

Extreme flooding of the Mississippi River this spring is expected to result in the largest Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" on record, according to a University of Michigan aquatic ecologist and his colleagues. The 2011 forecast, released today by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 8,500 and 9,421 square miles, an area roughly the size of New Hampshire.

Reo named Toihuarewa Visiting Indigenous Fellow, will travel to New Zealand to study tribal natural resource issues

Post-doc researcher Nick Reo has received the Toihuarewa Visiting Indigenous Fellowship, designed is to attract international indigenous scholars to Victoria University to build indigenous research capacity and enhance engagement and collaboration with Victoria'ss M' ori research program.

The Life of a Forester: Text of the commencement keynote, delivered by Peter Mertz (SNRE '74, MBA '81)

"I have followed a career path that did not exist when I graduated from the University of Michigan. But this great University gave me the skills to create it," Peter C. Mertz, Visiting Committee member and alumnus, delivered this year's Commencement address April 30. Mertz is chief executive officer and co-founder of Global Forest Partners (GFP), one of the largest timber investment management organizations in the world.

Cool heads for a hot world: ICARUS II Conference on Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation

The second conference of the Initiative on Climate Adaptation Research and Understanding through the Social Sciences, or ICARUS-2, will take place at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) in the University of Michigan's Dana Building, Ann Arbor campus, May 5-8. The theme for ICARUS-2 is Climate Vulnerability and Adaption: Marginal Peoples and Environment. More than 100 papers are registered to be presented by scholars and researchers from around the world. ICARUS-1was held at University of Illinois in 2010. Since last year, interest in climate adaptation has grown substantially, and ICARUS-2 is twice as large in terms of papers submitted and registered attendees.

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