More than 1.5 million U.S. jobs are directly connected to the Great Lakes, generating $62 billion in wages annually, according to a new analysis by Michigan Sea Grant at the University of Michigan. The analysis, released today, is based on 2009 employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and represents a conservative estimate of direct employment related to the Great Lakes in several industries, according to the authors, Michigan Sea Grant's assistant director, Jennifer Read, and research specialist Lynn Vaccaro.
University of Michigan researchers are available to discuss the potential impacts of President Obama's proposal, announced Monday, to reduce funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Michigan Sea Grant has been awarded more than $1.5 million from the federal government to lead two Great Lakes restoration projects that will restore native fish habitat and help clean up marinas across the region. It will also assist on five federally funded projects focused on issues including endangered fish, beach contamination, sound boating practices and marina operations, and water pollution.
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.
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.
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.
Allen Burton, professor and chair of the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Wright State University, has been named director of the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research (CILER) at the Universityof Michigan effective Aug. 1. Professor Burton will hold a simultaneous appointment as a professor in U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment, which houses CILER.
The immune system of the Great Lakes is breaking down and the ecosystem is in danger of collapse, according to a new report released today by the region’s leading scientists. The report underscores the urgent need for comprehensive restoration to repair the “immune system” of the Great Lakes, and to reverse a pattern of decline that threatens to affect drinking water, swimming, fishing, tourism and other benefits derived from the largest body of fresh water in the world. “This report serves as a warning,” said Alfred Beeton, Ph.D., one of the lead authors and former director of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. “The Great Lakes are deteriorating at a rate unprecedented in their recorded history and are nearing the tipping point of ecosystem-wide breakdown. If we want to restore this resource, it is time to act now.”