This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Alkanes for UV screening? Ask Antarctic algae and mosses

Speaker: Dr. Supriyo Kumar Das, Department of Geology, Presidency University in Kolkata, India

When: Friday, December 4, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Change in moss leaf colour from green to grey and grey to black (moribund), and lake benthic algal mat pigments from green to red-green, red-green to red and red to grey are observed in Larsemann Hills of East Antarctica. A systematic change in the distribution of short-chain (n-C17 to n-C20) versus long-chain (n-C21 to n-C30) n-alkanes in accordance with the changes in moss and algal mat pigment is also noted. The research links the relatively higher synthesis of short-chain n-alkanes with respect to the long-chain n-alkanes in algal mats and mosses to increasing exposure to ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation and propose that short-chain n-alkanes functions as UV screening compounds (UVSC) for protection against harmful UV-B radiation in Antarctic moss and lake benthic algal mat.

Supriyo Das was awarded PhD in Biogeochemistry by Stockholm University in 2007. After finishing PhD, Dr Das continued his research as a postdoctoral researcher at NIOZ, University of Glasgow, Örebro University and Linnaeus University. During his research, he received prestigious EAOG scholarship, British Council and Swedish Research Council fellowships. He is presently working as an Assistant Professor at Presidency University in Kolkata. His research applies elemental, molecular and stable isotope geochemistry to understand the interaction between continually changing climate, environment and human activities. He was a member of IODP expedition 354 and 38th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica.

You can find Dr. Das on Twitter (@Dr_Supriyo_Das) or on his research page here.

Congratulations to the 8 students (7 from the T-RUST family!) who were recently awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) P3 student design competition: People, Prosperity, and the Planet.

The project, entitled GIS-informed urban groundwater monitoring networks, will understand how green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) affects urban groundwater quality and flow by piloting a network of community-based groundwater monitoring stations surrounding GSI sites in Detroit, MI. The technical challenge is to develop a scalable model of relatively low-cost groundwater monitoring stations to measure groundwater flow and quality at the neighborhood scale.

The project will benefit residents of the city of Detroit and surrounding communities by piloting a groundwater monitoring network that can elucidate connections between GSSI and groundwater, identify potential exposure pathways for contaminants, and provide community education and engagement around the importance of groundwater resources in the Great Lakes region.

This was truly an interdisciplinary effort, involving graduate students from Civil & Environmental Engineering, Biology, Anthropology, and Urban Studies and Planning. The T-RUST faculty leads are Dr. Carol Miller (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Dr. Rahul Mitra (Communication).

Amazing work; congrats to you all: Brittanie Dabney, Kate Ekhator, Darrin Hunt, Colleen Linn, Natalie Lyon, Brendan O’Leary, Adam Pruett, and Sadaf Teimoori.

This is part of an ongoing collaborative, student-led seminar series hosted by T-RUST (Transformative Research in Urban Sustainability Training) at WSU and GLIER (Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research) at the University of Windsor. The seminar series is titled Transformative Change in Environmental Sustainability and occurs biweekly on Fridays at 10am.

Title: Eco-evolutionary dynamics in Great Lakes fish stocks and why they matter for management

Speaker: Dr. Erin Dunlop, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

When: Friday, November 20, 10am

Where: Virtually on Zoom, register here: http://bit.ly/WindsortoWayne. The Zoom link will be sent to the email used for registration two days before the seminar.

Evolution can occur in animal populations on short enough time scales to interact with ecological processes, with selection from human activities causing more rapid responses than natural sources of selection. There are many anthropogenic sources of selection in the Great Lakes that can alter the eco-evolutionary dynamics of fish stocks in ways that critically impact ecosystem services. The most studied example is fisheries-induced evolution, where harvesting leads to genetic changes in a population’s traits. Common evolutionary responses to fishing include smaller body size, earlier maturity, and shy behaviour. These evolutionary responses can have undesirable consequences from a management perspective, including reduced yield, lower catch rates by anglers, and slow rates of recovery in depleted populations. Furthermore, such responses can affect the accuracy of stock assessment models that are used to guide quota management decisions, leading to over or under harvesting depending on the direction of changes. Another relevant example of evolution in the Great Lakes is the possibility that sea lamprey may evolve resistance to the pesticide used to control their population. These examples indicate that eco-evolutionary dynamics need to be accounted for when providing information on stock status, defining sustainable harvest levels, controlling invasive species, and developing recovery strategies.

Dr. Erin Dunlop is a Research Scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and is based out of Trent University in Peterborough Ontario Canada. Erin leads a research program that focuses on fish population dynamics in the Great Lakes, with a focus on providing applied science to inform management and policy decisions. Follow Dr. Dunlop on Twitter: @airydunlop