A.  Center/Institute/Program

 

Center Name: Center for Water and the Environment, University of Minnesota

 

Natural Resources Research Institute

University of Minnesota Duluth

5013 Miller Trunk Highway

Duluth, MN 55812-1442

 

Phone: 218-720-4279

Fax:     218-720-4328

E-mail: gniemi@d.umn.edu

 

Director/Chairperson: Gerald J. Niemi, PhD

Co-Representatives to AERC: Lucinda B. Johnson, PhD

 

B.  Major objectives of the Center/Institute/Program

 

1.   To conduct innovative basic and applied research so that sustained and efficient utilization of the natural resources of the Great Lakes area proceeds in an ecologically sound manner.

 

C.  Major ecosystem research emphases:

 

1.      Ecosystem and landscape studies

2.      Environmental chemistry

3.      Resource analysis

 

D.  Staff:

 

Permanent scientific staff:      PhD: 2, MS: 1

Adjuncts: 12

Scientific support staff:           Postdocs: 0, Technicians: 9

Other support staff:                 3

Graduate students:                 PhD: 2, MS: 5

Summer grad/undergrad:       6.5

 

E.  Approximate annual funding (recent year)

 

Core funding: $932,301/yr, State of Minnesota

Grants: $1,510,959

·         Major federal sources: Air Force, CDC, DOD, DOE, EPA, NASA, National Fish & Wildlife, NCASI, NIH, NOAA Coastal Program and Sea Grant, NSF, USDA Forest Service, USGS NPS (Voyageurs and Isle Royale National Park; Great Lakes Network; and the Northeastern Coastal Network.

·                     Minnesota sources: MN DNR; Legislative-Citizen Commission on MN Resources; Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Lac Courte Oreilles, and Mille Lacs Bands of the Chippewa Tribe, Potawatomi Tribal Environmental Program; Lake of the Woods, South St. Louis, Benton, Cook, Itasca County Soil and Water Conservation Districts; MN PCA, MN’s Lake Superior Coastal Program, Nature Conservancy (Blandin Foundation, prime), city of Duluth, MN Board of Water and Soil Resources, Minnesota Sea Grant.

F.  Areas and facilities for ecosystem research studies

1.      Natural Resources Research Institute

2.      Ely Field Station

3.      Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, 250 km2

4.      Isle Royale, Lake Superior, 574 km2

5.      Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota, 5,000 km2

6.      Superior National Forest, Minnesota, 8,000 km2

 

G.  Research staff directly involved in ecosystem research (names and specialty areas)

 

 Axler, Richard                  lake and stream water quality, nutrient cycling, treatment wetlands

Brady, Valerie                    stream ecosystems, environmental indicators

Breneman, Dan                stream ecosystems, environmental toxicology

Brown, Terry                     ecosystem modeling and simulation, advanced spatial and other data analyses, web-based applications

Danz, Nick                        quantitative ecology, ecological statistics, vegetation

Hale, Cynthia                     forest ecology, exotic earthworm invasions, citizen science

Hollenhorst, Tom              GIS, remote sensing, landscape ecology

Host, George                     forest ecosystems, landscape ecology

Johnson, Lucinda              stream ecosystems, landscape ecology, amphibian ecology

Kireta, Amy                       diatoms, aquatic ecology, limnology and paleolimnology

Reavie, Euan                    great lakes and rivers, algae, water quality, paleolimnology

Moen, Ron                         modeling, physiological ecology, radiotelemetry

Niemi, Gerald                    avian communities, biological diversity, environmental indicators

Olker, Jennifer                   amphibian communities and wetland ecology

Schoff, Patrick                  reproductive and development biology, ecotoxicology

 

Official Adjuncts:

Pastor, John                      foraging behavior, evolution in ecosystem context, plant-herbivore interactions, carbon, nitrogen cycling, climate change effects on northern ecosystems

Gran, Karen                      stream geomorphology, sediment transport

Guntenspergen, Glenn      wetland and landscape ecology

Hrabik, Tom                      fish ecology, predator-prey interactions

Branstrator, Donn             zooplankton ecology, predator-prey interactions, invasive species

Regal, Ron                        applied statistics, statistical computing, biostatistics

Mayasich, Joe                   ecotoxicology

Hill, Brian                           stream and watershed ecology, nutrient cycling

Degitz, Sigmund              

Kelly, John

Mount, David                     ecotoxicology

Johnson, Rodney             

 

H.  Long-term data sets (code name, number of years of data, computer accessibility)

 

1.      Voyageurs National Park, 15 years, not accessible

 

2.      Isle Royale, 15 years, not accessible

 

3.      Forest Bird Diversity, 18+ years, data in process of being made accessible. (Note: some data are available in the form of pre-set queries on our website www.nrri.umn.edu/mnbirds)

 

4.      MN’s Climate Change Lakes, working on project involving assembling long-term data sets for ~ 500 lakes with > 15 years of data as part of a climate change project. In progress, no real moniker yet

 

5.      Aquatic plant data base developed for DNR