The University of Michigan and Michigan State University will jointly lead a federally funded effort to help Great Lakes-region residents anticipate and adapt to climate change. The interdisciplinary effort will be funded by a five-year, $4.2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The new Great Lakes Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA) will focus initially on the watersheds of lakes Erie and Huron and three critical topics: agriculture, watershed management, and natural resources-based recreation and tourism.
The University of Michigan and Michigan State University will jointly lead a federally funded effort to help Great Lakes-region residents anticipate and adapt to climate change. The interdisciplinary effort will be funded by a five-year, $4.2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. SNRE Professor Don Scavia is a co-leader of the project.
Metamorphosis is stressful. So said SNRE professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Bobbi Low to incoming University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School students in the keynote lecture of the fall welcome ceremony on September 2. Professor Low, who used to research toad skin secretions, likened new doctoral students to tadpoles, which have no reproductive organs; by the time the students graduate, they will be metaphorical toads, producing new research and generating ideas.
SNRE Dean Rosina M. Bierbaum and Professors Andy Hoffman, Maria Carmen Lemos and Ted Parsons contributed to a series of recently published national reports on climate change. The National Research Council of the National Academies of Science produced the series, called America's Climate Choices, at the request of Congress.
Three SNRE researchers have been selected to contribute climate-change adaptation research and analysis to the fifth climate assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The comprehensive assessments examine climate change in terms of physical science, adaptation, and mitigation of impacts, and provide governments with sound scientific knowledge of climate change.
Bridget Hohner, an SNRE Aquatic Sciences master's student, explains her research on the effects of chemicals to control sea lampreys on mussel populations in Michigan streams. The work is highlighted in a video produced by SNRE Professor Sara Adlerstein through special funding provided by the Rackham Graduate School.
University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia and his colleagues say this year's Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" is expected to be larger than average, continuing a decades-long trend that threatens the health of a $659 million fishery. The 2010 forecast, released today by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 6,500 and 7,800 square miles, an area roughly the size of Lake Ontario.
Two School of Natural Resources and Environment professors were among 10 University of Michigan faculty elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dan Brown and Ivette Perfecto joined 530 scientists and researchers elected as part of an annual process conducted ty the AAAS. Professor Brown, who joined SNRE in 1999, was recognized for contributions to the understanding of the consequences of land-use change on ecosystems and human vulnerability via the innovative blending of social and ecological analysis. Professor Perfecto, who joined SNRE in 1989, was recognized for contributions to preserving biological diversity, particularly in demonstrating the importance of incorporating agricultural systems in models for conservation of biodiversity.
Agrawal, colleague link land management, ownership and climate change in forests of developing world
Studying 80 forest "commons" in more than a dozen developing nations, a University of Michigan researcher and his University of Illinois colleague have found links between local ownership and control of those forests and the fight against climate change. They found that greater local ownership and input into forest management appear to keep these areas, also called forest commons, from being overharvested or otherwise misused, thereby increasing their ability to capture carbon and mitigate or slow the effects of climate change. Their findings, based on data collected on three continents, appear in a paper published online Oct. 5 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors are Arun Agrawal, a professor and associate dean of the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment, and Ashwini Chhatre of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A University of Michigan-led research team is creating a comprehensive analysis and mapping of threats to the Great Lakes that will guide decision-making in the United States and Canada for years to come. The mapping and analysis project will produce the first-of-its-kind regional synthesis of human impacts on the Great Lakes, thereby helping regional planners and conservation groups to prioritize their activities. The Erb Family Foundation is funding the $500,000, two-year project. The project focuses on mapping threats to the lakes themselves, and will complement ongoing efforts focused on watersheds.
Michigan Sea Grant today awarded a total of $409,417 to researchers from three Michigan universities. The research will focus on Michigan's coastal and Great Lakes issues involving wind power and restoring natural river flow in the Clinton River watershed. The funding will sustain three-year research projects and is contingent upon annual appropriations from Congress. The grant funds are leveraged by an additional $254,457 from non-federal sources, including state and university partners.
For the second consecutive year, The Journal of Great Lakes Research has given its annual award for best peer-reviewed paper to a researcher affiliated with the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment. Thomas Johengen received the 2009 Chandler-Misener Award for a paper titled, "Stimulation of Lake Michigan plankton metabolism by sediment resuspension and river runoff." He co-authored the paper with fellow researchers Bopaiah A. Biddanda and James B Cotner.
University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia and his colleagues say this year's Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" could be one of the largest on record, continuing a decades-long trend that threatens the health of a half-billion-dollar fishery. The scientists' latest forecast, released today, calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles---an area about the size of New Jersey.
David Allan, professor and acting dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, will be honored Sunday (May 17) for outstanding contributions to all fields of benthic science with the "Award of Excellence" from the North American Benthological Society. The 1,500-member international organization is conducting its 57th annual meeting this year in Grand Rapids, Mich.í‚ Benthic science refers collectively to all aquatic organisms that live on, in or near the bottom (substratum) of water bodies, and the bottom environment itself. This includes organisms inhabiting running and standing waters, and also applies to organisms from saltwater and freshwater habitats.
Don Zak, a professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, will deliver the Francis Clark Distinguished Lectureship at the 2009 Soil Science Society of America meeting. The lectureship is the highest award given by the society for pioneering work in soil biology and biochemistry. His lecture will be delivered Nov. 3 at the International Annual Meetings of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). That event is Nov. 1-5 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. It brings together more than 3,500 people from 50-plus countries representing academia, government and private industry, including a large contingent of undergraduate and graduate students.