Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/18
Outputs Target Audience: Our target audience for the mercury deposition and bioacculumation research project in the St. Louis River watershed encompasses both the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa community members, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College students, Fond du Lac Resource Managment staff, Minnesota University researchers, and the greater community in the St. Louis River watershed. Mercury contamination of the plants and animals that the Ojibwe people have traditionally eaten presents a major health concern for tribal members. Our proposal will spatially measure the mercury deposition in the St. Louis River watershed and test for correlation between dry deposition and bioaccumulation in dragonfly larvae. The implications of this research is significant since it will help both tribal Natural Resource managers as well as health officials to make decisions that protect human health in the watershed. This project will build upon both mercury leaf litter and dragonfly research projects that are looking to understand the mercury loading in our region. Our research proposal will also give a FDLTCC student research team an opportunity to contribute to a new field of mercury research that look at dragonflies as viable biosentinels for mercury in a watershed as well as the potential relationship between the atmospheric inputs of mercury to the watershed system with dragonfly bioaccumulation. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? During our project both our research students as well as their mentors were given the chance to attend the St. Louis River Summit science conference. This conference offers the latest research on issues impacting the water quality and ecology of the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. The knowledge sharing and opportunity for networking strenghtened our project and gave all the project participants a chance to connect our work with others in the region. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The analyzed data was dissemintated through several outreach events. Poster presenations were given at the St. Louis River Summit, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Open House and Earth Week. Our research students created a power point presentation that was given to fellow students in the University of Minnesota Bridge Program. This program is a first time college students transfer program between community colleges and the University. There are approximately 30 students in the Bridge Program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The project will continue with the support of USDA NIFA Tribal Research program. Our program will seek to answer some of the questions raised during the current research and expand the knowledge how mercury moves in the St. Louis River watershed system.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
The research had a very successful season this year. Under each goal we have listed our accomplishments. Goal 1 The stream sites chosen represented four different landscape types - Forested, Wetland, Ditched Peatland, and Reservoir systems. The field season ran from May to Oct. 2017. Odonates and water samples are done throughout both field seasons, leaf litter is only done in fall field season. Water samples were collected every two weeks within the field sample seasons. Odonates were collected weekly, at least 2 times a week. During our project both our research students as well as their mentors were given the chance to attend the St. Louis River Summit science conference. This conference offers the latest research on issues impacting the water quality and ecology of the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. The knowledge sharing and opportunity for networking strenghtened our project and gave all the project participants a chance to connect our work with others in the region. • Students collected 28 samples of leaf litter across four sites within the St. Louis River watershed. The leaf litter sites were located at the Cloquet River, North Branch Whiteface, Whiteface Reservoir, and West Swan. The leaf litter was tested for Total Mercury (THg). • 283 water samples and 266 dragonfly larvae (odonates) from five different families were collected across 12 sites. Our stream sites included West Swan, Whiteface Reservoir, Artichoke, North Branch Whiteface, Sixteen, Otter, Stone, Skunk, Spider, Fish Outlet, Fish Inlet, and Cloquet River. • The 283 water samples were analyzed for Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), Alkalinity (Alk), total mercury (THg), Methylmercury (MeHg), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), and Sulfate. • Odonates were tested for THg and MeHg. Goal 2 Our student researchers were given opportunities to grow their knowledge, outreach skills, and leadership abilities through presentations, peer to peer learning, and networking with regional professionals. The five research students created and updated research posters that were shared at several different venues. • The St. Louis River Summit, regional science conference, hosted over 300 regional natural resource researchers and professionals in March 2018. Our students presented the poster "Spatial Variability of Mercury in the St. Louis River Watershed Across Four Different Landscape Types" • Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Open House saw 100 visitors from the surrounding community. Two of our research students presented on their project using preliminary research data • During Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Earth Week held in April 2018, the research students gave a power point presentation on their project. Over 200 students and community members participated in Earth Week. Under the guidance of their staff and faculty mentors our research students analyzed their field season data to test their hypothesis that there would be differences in total mercury (THg) bioaccumulation in odonates collected from the four landscape types of ditched peatland, forested, wetland, and reservoir systems in northeastern Minnesota. The students found that the odonate Hg to water Hg ratio is consistent with other studies in the region suggesting Hg found in water does end up in the biota. Their results are consistent with other research connecting DOC with Hg in biota in the upper Midwest and support our hypothesis that there are differences in THg between landscape types common for this watershed. The Hg in leaf litter was higher in the forested and wetland land coverages compared to the ditched peatland and reservoir, but not as much as expected. The Hg in the water samples are higher in forested and wetland compared to the ditched peatland and reservoir systems. Reflecting on their field season and research suggested future research directions to be taken with this project. The students concluded that more samples should be collected in the summer and fall seasons of 2018 since they felt that high water in the later part of the season negatively impacted their data collection. Students suggested looking at differences of Hg concentration between odonate families to determine if different families bioaccumulate mercury at different rates. Students also suggested measuring wing pad length to determine odonate larva instar (age) to more accurately determine how long the odonate has been at the stream site. To further understand their results the students suggested the installation of water level data loggers to monitor flow variability at landscape representative sites. They also felt that not enough data had been collected and suggested the collection of more seasonal data to replicate samples for greater statistical strength.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Spatial Variability of Mercury in the St. Louis River Watershed Across Four Landscape Types
Heather Buttgen, Alicia Hallfrisch, Cade Kowalczak, Arianna Northbird, Sara Rybak, Courtney Kowalczak, Andrew Wold (FDLTCC), Nathan Johnson (UMD)
Presented at the St. Louis River Summit, March 2018, Superior Wisconsin
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs Target Audience: Our target audience for the mercury deposition and bioacculumation research project in the St. Louis River watershed encompasses both the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa community members, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College students, Fond du Lac Resource Managment staff, Minnesota University researchers,and the greater community in the St. Louis River watershed. Mercury contamination of the plants and animals that the Ojibwe people have traditionally eaten presents a major health concern for tribal members. Our proposal will spatially measure the mercury deposition in the St. Louis River watershed and test for correlation between dry deposition and bioaccumulation in dragonfly larvae. The implications of this research is significant since it will help both tribal Natural Resource managers as well as health officials to make decisions that protect human health in the watershed. This project will build upon both mercury leaf litter and dragonfly research projects that are looking to understand the mercury loading in our region. Our research proposal will also give a FDLTCC student research team an opportunity to contribute to a new field of mercury research that look at dragonflies as viable biosentinels for mercury in a watershed as well as the potential relationship between the atmospheric inputs of mercury to the watershed system with dragonfly bioaccumulation. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During our project both our research students as well as their mentors were given the chance to attend the St. Louis River Summit science conference. This conference offers the latest research on issues impacting the water quality and ecology of the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. The knowledge sharing and opportunity for networking strenghtened our project and gave all the project participants a chance to connect our work with others in the region. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The analyzed data was dissemintated through several outreach events. Poster presenations were given at the St. Louis River Summit, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Open House and Earth Week. Our research students created a power point presentation that was given to fellow students in the University of Minnesota Bridge Program. This program is a first time college students transfer program between community colleges and the University. There are approximately 30 students in the Bridge Program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The project will continue with the support of USDA NIFA Tribal Research program. Our program will seek to answer some of the questions raised during the current research and expand the knowledge how mercury moves in the St. Louis River watershed system.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
The research had a very successful season this year. Under each goal we have listed our accomplishments. Goal 1 The stream sites chosen represented four different landscape types - Forested, Wetland, Ditched Peatland, and Reservoir systems. The field season ran from May to Oct. 2017. Odonates and water samples are done throughout both field seasons, leaf litter is only done in fall field season. Water samples were collected every two weeks within the field sample seasons. Odonates were collected weekly, at least 2 times a week. Students collected28 samples of leaf litter acrossfour sites within the St. Louis River watershed. The leaf litter sites were located at the Cloquet River, North Branch Whiteface, Whiteface Reservoir, and West Swan. The leaf litter was tested for Total Mercury (THg). 283 water samples and 266 dragonfly larvae (odonates) from five different families were collectedacross 12 sites. Our stream sites included West Swan, Whiteface Reservoir, Artichoke, North Branch Whiteface, Sixteen, Otter, Stone, Skunk, Spider, Fish Outlet, Fish Inlet, and Cloquet River. The 283 water samples were analyzed for Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), Alkalinity (Alk), total mercury (THg), Methylmercury (MeHg), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), and Sulfate. Odonates were tested for THg and MeHg. Goal 2 Our student researchers were given opportunities to grow their knowledge, outreach skills, and leadership abilities through presentations, peer to peer learning, and networking with regional professionals. The five research students created and updated research posters that were shared at several different venues. The St. Louis River Summit, regional science conference, hosted over 300 regional natural resource researchers and professionals in March 2018. Our students presented the poster "Spatial Variability of Mercury in the St. Louis River Watershed Across Four Different Landscape Types" Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Open House saw 100 visitors from the surrounding community. Two of our research students presented on their project using preliminary research data During Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Earth Week held in April 2018, the research students gave a power point presentation on their project. Over 200 students and community members participated in Earth Week. Under the guidance of their staff and faculty mentors our research students analyzed their field season data to test their hypothesis that there would be differences in total mercury (THg) bioaccumulation in odonates collected from thefour landscape types of ditched peatland, forested, wetland, and reservoir systems in northeastern Minnesota. The students found that the odonate Hg to water Hg ratio is consistent with other studies in the region suggesting Hg found in water does end up in the biota. Their results are consistent with other research connecting DOC with Hg in biota in the upper Midwest and support our hypothesis that there are differences in THg between landscape types common for this watershed. The Hg in leaf litter was higher in the forested and wetland land coverages compared to the ditched peatland and reservoir, but not as much as expected. The Hg in the water samples are higher in forested and wetland compared to the ditched peatland and reservoir systems. Reflecting on their field season and research suggested future research directions to be taken with this project. The students concluded thatmore samples should be collected in the summer and fall seasons of 2018 since they felt that high water in the later part of the season negatively impacted their data collection.Students suggested looking at differences of Hg concentration between odonate families to determine if different families bioaccumulate mercury at different rates. Students also suggested measuring wing pad length to determine odonate larva instar (age) to more accurately determine how long the odonate has been at the stream site.To further understand their results the students suggested the installation of water level data loggers to monitor flow variability at landscape representative sites. They also felt that not enough data had been collected and suggested the collection of more seasonal data to replicate samples for greater statistical strength.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Spatial Variability of Mercury in the St. Louis River Watershed Across Four Landscape Types
Heather Buttgen, Alicia Hallfrisch, Cade Kowalczak, Arianna Northbird, Sara Rybak, Courtney Kowalczak, Andrew Wold (FDLTCC), Nathan Johnson (UMD)
Presented at the St. Louis River Summit, March 2018, Superior Wisconsin
|
Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs Target Audience:Mercury contamination of the plants and animals that the Ojibwe people have traditionally eaten presents a major health concern for tribal members. Our target audience includes tribal Natural Resource managers as well as health officials that will use our data to make decisions that protect human health in the watershed. It also serves our FDLTCC student research team. The FDLTCC students will be given an opportunity to contribute to a new field of mercury research that look at dragonflies as viable biosentinels for mercury in a watershed as well as the potential relationship between the atmospheric inputs of mercury to the watershed system with dragonfly bioaccumulation. As part of the leadership skills development the research college students will also mentor high school students at the summer FDLTCC Nandagikendan (Seek to Learn) Academy on water and air quality sampling techniques, issues, and data analysis. To further help the college students with communication skills and presentation confidence, with FDLTCC and UMD college faculty supervision and support, students will be responsible for taking the project data and creating a presentation and research paper on the findings. These presentations will be given to Fond du Lac Resource Management staff as well in an open to the community event hosted by Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. The FDLTCC faculty advisors will also accompany the research students to the AISES conference to support presentations and further networking opportunities. The exposure of students to basic statistical techniques and inference of the significance of differences will provide a teaching tool for data analysis and interpretation that will complement their exposure to laboratory and field methods. Additionally, the technical results obtained will be helpful for local and regional resource management agencies seeking to understand the sources, transport, cycling, and bioaccumulation of mercury within the St. Louis River Watershed. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the 2017 staff and faculty were able to attend both the St. Louis River Water Summit as well as the Tribal Environmental Program Management conference. Both of these events featured the research being done in the region on inputs of mercury. These conferences featured the latest data on mercury sampling techniques, contamination levels, and educational outreach efforts. Faculty and staff also worked closely with Dr. Nathan Johnson from the University of Minnesota-Duluth Civil Engineering to train in techniques used by the University mercury research laboratory. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the 2016-2017 research year the students shared the scope of the research project and preliminary data at regional conferences, college communities, and outreach publications. The St. Louis River Watershed Summit and Tribal Environmental Program Management conference had a combined audience of over 350 tribal, federal, and state research professionals. College outreach events such as the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Earth week and the University of Minnesota - Duluth student symposium was open to college students and community with over 200 participants. The mercury research program was featured in the Environmental Institute Report Card. The Environmental Institute Report Card is distributed at outreach events throughout the year and over 200 publications were given out during the 2016-2017 year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the 2017-2018 research year analysis of water, and odonates will be run of the FDLTCC CVAFs system. Replicate of water and leaf litter samples will be sent to a certified lab to provide quality control/ quality assurance replicate data to compare to the mercury levels measured by the FDLTCC system. During the 2018 sampling season 14 stream sites in four landscape types will sampled. Mercury, alkalinity, sulfate, dissolved organic carbon, as well as additional water quality parameters will be tested on monthly basis. During the Spring of 2018 our faculty researcher will be taking a sabbatical to write up our research results as well as plan for the next steps to take to continue our research on mercury in northeastern Minnesota.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
During the fall of 2016 the project leaders decided to collect leaf litter, Odonate, and water samples in the very short window of field work of October to early November. Four sampling sites were chosen to collect preliminary data. These sites were chosen in partnership with Fond du Lac Resource Management and University of Minnesota - Duluth. The short 2016 fall sampling season allowed the students to follow and clarify protocols for field work. During this time students were tasked with connecting with partner researchers and agencies to assemble the protocols and then add step by step details. These details included creating packing lists, data sheets, and field notebook templates.The winter of 2016 - 2017 was devoted to the students learning about Odonate identification as well as standard laboratory protocol. All Odonate samples were identified to Family and a select number of samples were identified to Genus. Quality control / quality assurance protocols included 10% random check of samples to assure proper identification was performed. During the 2016-2017 research season the students increased their communication and leadership skills by working on presentations for tribal, federal, and state environmental professionals, tribal college students, and University of Minnesota - Duluth college students. In March 2017 the team of three research students took their preliminary data on Odonates and water samples to create a research poster. This poster was presented at the St. Louis River Watershed Summit. This conference had over 300 participants and highlighted presentations from the Environmental Protection Agency, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Department of Natural Resources, University researchers, and college students on water quality issues of the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. Our students participated in the poster session and made valuable connections with other agencies that were planning mercury research in 2017. In April of 2017 two of the research students attended the Tribal Environmental Program Management meeting hosted by region 5 Environmental Protection Agency. During this meeting the research students did a 15 minute presentation on their research, preliminary data, and next steps. This meeting was attended by nationally recognized researchers in the field of mercury pollution as well as over 30 participants from regional tribal and federal agencies. After the presentation the students networked with the professionals and were asked to share their presentation with the group. Also in April the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College hosted an Earth Week celebration. During this celebration our students presented on their mercury research and the importance of protecting water quality in our region. Over 50 college students attended the presentation. In July 2017 the University of Minnesota - Duluth (UMD) hosted a college research symposium. Our research students presented their work to the UMD college students. An estimated 35 students were part of this symposium. Student researchers were paired with a graduate student from the University of Minnesota-Duluth mercury research lab to train into processing of the Odonate samples. Students studied EPA Method 1631 and then under the supervision of the graduate student they digested and ran total mercury (THg) on their fall Odonate samples. The FDLTCC students dried and ground up their 2016 leaf samples. Using the EPA 1631 method the students worked on digestion of the samples to run on the CVAFS system. The carbon level of the leaves caused problems with proper digestion. This trouble with processing of these samples have caused a change in research design. The collected leaf litter will be sent to an independent laboratory for testing. Before the 2017 sampling season started a meeting was held between partners to review the 2016 fall results and discuss changes to the 2017 research project design. At that meeting it was decided to add sampling sites in four major landscape types of the St. Louis River watershed. These landscape types included wetland, forested, ditched peatland, and reservoir. These landscape types were chosen to give us data on how each of the different landscapes process mercury inputs. Sites were chosen that also covered the length and breadth of the watershed. Surface water, discharge, and multi-parameter meter readings were taken at each of the 13 sampling sites. Water samples were sent to an independent certified laboratory to test for sulfates, dissolved organic carbon, alkalinity, as well as total and methylated mercury. Water was also taken for processing for total mercury at the FDLTCC laboratory.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Isham, J., Buttgen, H., Halfrisch, A. (Tribal Environmental Management Program Mtg. 2017,April) Mercury Loading in the St. Louis River Watershed and Potential Correlation with Dragonfly Bioaccumulation
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