Featured Research: by Brenda Moraska Lafrancois

Lafrancois et al. 2011. Links between type E botulism outbreaks, lake levels, and surface water temperatures in Lake Michigan, 1963-2008. J. Great Lakes Res. 37:86-91.

In response to a recent resurgence of type E botulism in the Great Lakes, Brenda Moraska Lafrancois and her colleagues evaluated long-term relationships between botulism outbreaks and large-scale environmental factors in Lake Michigan. The team found associations between avian botulism outbreaks and low water levels and high summer surface water temperatures. Notable outbreaks coincided with periods of high prey fish abundance (alewife in the 1960s, round gobies in the 2000s).

Given that climate change scenarios predict lower water levels and higher water temperatures in the Great Lakes region, this study suggests that the frequency and magnitude of type E botulism outbreaks may increase in the future.

Brenda is a regional aquatic ecologist with the National Park Service and is stationed in St. Croix, Minnesota. She received a BS from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and a PhD in ecology from Colorado State University. Her current role is to advise on water resource issues in Great Lakes’ national parks, including nutrient enrichment, atmospheric contaminants, and aquatic invasive species.

Featured Professional: Kathy Sakamoto

Kathy Sakamoto is driven to build her knowledge of fish habitat to help protect our aquatic resources. After graduating from Lakehead University in Forest Technology, she worked with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Nipigon District, on fish habitat issues. A workshop on fluvial geomorphology by David Rosgen opened her eyes to the connection between surficial geology and fish habitat, and whetted her appetite for more knowledge.

A move to Thunder Bay was an opportunity to go back to school to complete an Honour’s BSc part time. Her thesis research focused on surficial geology and fish habitat in the Black Sturgeon River. This tributary of Lake Superior flows into Black Bay, the location of a historically important walleye fishery. Besides reviewing files, maps, and aerial photographs, Kathy spent long days doing field work by canoe along 70 km of the river. Her research identified important spawning habitat for walleye, most of which was blocked by a logging dam used for sea lamprey control.

In her current role as Regional Information Management Specialist, Kathy advises fisheries personnel on how to use technology to collect and organize information.

Kathy is currently focusing on an early retirement and return to graduate school to complete a MSc in fisheries science. Choosing a university is her next challenge!

Featured Student: Kimberly Peters

Kimberly Peters is a recent Master’s graduate of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University.

Having grown up in Toledo, Ohio, she grew to love the Great Lakes at a young age. She pursued a BA in Environmental Policy and Analysis at Bowling Green State University to further cultivate this passion and get involved with the protection of the Great Lakes. She quickly realized that policy in combination with science could provide a deeper and richer understanding of the Great Lakes.

Under the supervision of Dr. Scott Peacor, Kim completed an interdisciplinary Master’s project that brought together stakeholders, policy-makers, and scientists to battle common environmental stressors in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron. Her research focused on the influence of light and nutrient limitation on benthic algal health, the main biotic culprits in shoreline fouling events in this system. In recognition of her work, Kim was awarded the prestigious Paul W. Rodgers Scholarship from IAGLR.

Kim continues to work with the research community and stakeholders in Saginaw Bay to help residents predict and alleviate future fouling events. In the future, she hopes to continue developing the joint policy-ecology arena to help protect the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Featured Research by Cheryl Dykstra

Dykstra, C.R., et al. 2010. Contaminant concentrations in Bald Eagles nesting on Lake Superior, the upper Mississippi River, and the St. Croix River. J. Great Lakes Res. 36:561-569.

Cheryl Dykstra and her colleagues measured contaminant concentrations in Bald Eagle nestlings collected from three regions over the past two decades. Their study documents a steady decrease in concentrations of the persistent organochlorines DDE and total PCBs, as well as mercury, along the Lake Superior shoreline. Lake Superior nestlings had the highest concentrations of DDE. Concentrations of total PCBs were highest along the industrial areas of the Mississippi and Lower St. Croix rivers, and levels of mercury were greatest along the upper St. Croix River. Levels of all three contaminants were below those associated with significant impairment of reproduction, and observed reproductive rates were indicative of a healthy population.

Cheryl Dykstra is an independent researcher and self-employed wildlife consultant in West Chester, Ohio. Her training in wildlife ecology includes a B.S. degree from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work now focuses on evaluating the effects of urbanization on the ecology of raptors in suburban areas of southwestern Ohio.

Featured Professional: Jessica Hellman

Have you ever wondered what humans might do to reduce the negative effects of climate change? This is one of the newest challenges for climate change biology and a question that Dr. Jessica Hellmann and her students at the University of Notre Dame are tackling.

Jessica’s work on "adaptation" to climate change has emerged from her studies on the ecological impacts of climate change. She feels that ecologists have spent many years diagnosing the effects of climate change on biodiversity, but now we need to use this knowledge to design management strategies to live with climate change.

Specifically, the Hellmann Lab is studying the ecological and evolutionary factors that limit the ability of species to track climate as it shifts. These limitations include local adaptation of populations to local climates and specialized interactions between species. Humans might be able to overcome these limitations for some species by facilitating their movement and even putting some in new locations. Several species in the Great Lakes region are helping Jessica grapple with these issues, including the hybridizing Midwestern butterflies, Papilio glaucus and P. canadensis, and the endangered Karner blue butterfly.

For more information about Jessica Hellmann and her research group, see http://www.nd.edu/~hellmann/.

Featured Student or Postdoc: Julie Marentette

Julie Marentette is a Ph.D. student working with Sigal Balshine in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

For Julie, a large part of growing up was fishing and swimming in Lakes St. Clair and Erie. Following a love of nature, she completed a B.Sc. in Biology at the University of Windsor. While there, she developed an interest in Great Lakes research as an NSERC undergraduate research assistant, and later thesis student, in the laboratory of Lynda Corkum. With Lynda, Julie studied pheromone communication in the invasive round goby.

Julie’s ongoing research with Sigal at McMaster University continues to focus on the reproductive biology of the round goby. Currently, she is examining the consequences of living in contaminated habitats. This involves a comparison of physiological and behavioural biomarkers of pollutant exposure in fish from areas of varying contamination in Hamilton Harbour, an Area of Concern. She suspects that contamination will affect activity levels, foraging, and responses to predators. Her work will help determine how contaminants affect round goby population dynamics, and thus the transfer of toxicants through local foodwebs.