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Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant announces $400,000 in funding for four new research projects focused on social and policy issues related to PFAS in the Great Lakes region.
A Great Lakes Sea Grant Research Project Leads to Bigger Questions and NSF Funding
“Shipboard Science” provides educators in the Great Lakes basin the opportunity to conduct scientific research activities alongside aquatic scientists and learn strategies to integrate Great Lakes science into their curriculum.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is helping place more Indiana-farm-raised fish on menus in the Midwest through events like the Aquaculture Industry Tour for Culinary Professionals.
” Everyone needs to be informed about weather and consequently wave dynamics on the lake and in the nearshore zone.”
By incorporating social science into the equation, Great Lakes Sea Grant programs are helping to meet societal needs.
Microbeads have drawn a lot of public and political attention since 2012, when researchers from New York and Wisconsin discovered millions of the tiny particles in several Great Lakes. But this new study suggests microfibers may be an even larger concern in at least a few areas.
Tipping Points and Indicators, a research and extension program for Great Lakes coastal communities, helps local decision makers identify impacts of land-based activities that threaten the sustainability of ecosystems in their watershed. This program includes a web-based decision support syst​em (tippingpointplanner.org) and facilitated forum to explore policy and management interventions necessary to keep coastal ecosystems from reaching critical tipping points and moving to unstable conditions.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has a climatologist on staff who conducts workshops and interacts with local resource managers along southern Lake Michigan to help the region become more resilient. We have produced or participated in the creation of number tools to help communities.
Lake Michigan provides a reliable supply of drinking water for a large population in the greater Chicago area of northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, but is being tapped to its legal limit. Water supply planning can increase preparedness for droughts and climate change, reduce regional conflicts, and promote conservation. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has tools to help communities with sustainable water pricing, outdoor conservation, sample ordinances, etc.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant maintains a buoy off the coast of Lake Michigan in Indiana and will soon be installing a second buoy in waters on the Illinois side. The buoys are equipped with sensitive scientific instruments that help scientists, managers, and local community members understand how the lake works, how things look today, and how things will look in the future.
This congressional act provides matching funds to communities to speed up the pace of cleanup of contaminated sediments within Great Lakes Areas of Concern. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant conducts workshops, provides local community support, and has developed numerous products including curricula, economic development strategies, and fact sheets.
This beach manager’s manual provides the latest information and management strategies for harmful algal blooms, type E botulism outbreaks, and other topics in the future.
Lawn and garden chemicals applied in the Lake Michigan basin can wind up in the water, polluting the lakes with pesticides and excess fertilizer. The program promotes healthy landscape practices, offering communities, landscapers, residents, and others, tips for maintaining healthy lawns and landscapes without over-relying on chemicals.
This web-based GIS decision system is designed to improve comprehensive land use planning so that economic, ecological, social, and cultural resources are integrated with future development in a sustainable way.
Since 2001, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has hosted workshops pertaining to various aspects of river and stream restoration, including dam removal. The River Restoration: Practices and Concepts workshops provide the opportunity to hear about the latest restoration projects from experts nationally as well as from the region, and communicate with other professionals with similar interests.
Caitie McCoy is Illinois Indiana Sea Grant's environmental social scientist. Caitie is focused on communities interested or involved with the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which provides resources to clean up U.S. EPA Areas of Concern.
Water conservation has moved center stage in the Chicago suburbs. Summer shortages are a major concern here, and communities are looking to tackle the problem at its source: inefficient outdoor water use.
Sea Grant greats were honored with Sunset Career Awards at the Great Lakes Regional Sea Grant Meeting in Erie, PA June 16-18, 2014. They all plan to retire before the next Great Lakes Regional Meeting so they were asked to each share some words of wisdom.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is leading the effort to develop an online tool that allows community planners to make informed decisions regarding land use by identifying how watershed ecosystems will look in the future if current land use practices continue or are ramped up.
The winning projects of the climate adaptation initiative represent a diverse array of regions and challenges, and highlight to power of communities working together to address far-reaching challenges, partnering with universities and government to ensure the best science available is used to inform public decisions.
The Great Lakes may span eight states and two provinces, but the threat of new aquatic invasive species is a constant reminder that the region is connected in more than name alone.