Aquatic Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics

Explore the complex nature of aquatic food webs and near-shore processes as part of the Aquatic Ecology and Ecosystems Dynamics research team.

With fresh water only a few steps away from the front door of the Great Lakes Research Center, researchers have truly amazing opportunities for their studies. Our research topics, ranging from near-shore carbon-cycling processes and global carbon budgets to mitigation of heavy-metal-laden mining byproducts, have both a local and global impact.

Given our location in one of the top ten snowiest areas in the nation, we also have wonderful winter-water research opportunities. Current topics of interest include nutrient cycling in ice-covered near-shore streams and the impact of increasingly warmer winters on the coastal food web.

Warm-Weater Research text with cloud graphic

  • Mining contamination near Torch Lake
  • Mitigation of industrial waste products
  • Changing aquatic carbon cycle due to global climate change

Cold-Weater Research text with cloud and snowflake graphic

  • Nutrient cycling in ice-covered near-shore streams
  • Impact of increasingly warm winters on the coastal food web

 

  • Professor Emeritus, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Surface water quality engineering

Research Interests

  • Limnology
  • Engineering approaches to lake and river management
  • Mathematical modeling of surface water quality
  • Interim Department Chair, Chemistry
  • Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Climate change communication
  • Science-policy interface
  • Youth engagement in climate policy
  • Response of aquatic systems to climate change
  • Great Lakes
  • Fluorescence-based analytical methods
  • Aerosol chemistry
  • Origin and fate of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in terrestrial, lake, and marine environments
  • Methods for detection of free radicals, photochemical transformations of natural and anthropogenic organic compounds in the environment
  • Integration of biological, geological, physical, and chemical data for understanding global cycles.
  • Professor, Biological Sciences
  • Director, Chemical Advanced Resolution Methods Laboratory

Research Interests

  • Algal Extracellular Polymers and Biocomposites - Regulation of Biogenesis
  • Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Expertise

  • Ecology of lakes, streams, and their riparian interface with terrestrial systems
  • Fish ecology, biology, functional morphology
  • effects of land use on ecological systems
  • Biomonitoring for research and restoration
  • Effects of Invasive Species
Evan Kane
"If trees could run away from their place of establishment, believe me many of them probably would!"
  • Associate Professor

Areas of Expertise

  • Soil carbon
  • Plant/soil relationships
  • Decomposition
  • Dissolved organic carbon
  • Wildfire
  • Black carbon
  • Emeritus Research Professor, Biological Sciences
  • Adjunct Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Research Interests

  • Aquatic Ecology
  • Paleoecology
  • Professor, Biological Sciences
  • Director, Ecosystem Science Center
  • Director, Aquatic Analysis (AQUA) Shared Facility

Research Interests

  • Limnology
  • Ecosystem Ecology of Streams and Rivers
  • Biogeochemistry
  • Professor Emeritus, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Teaching Interests

  • Groundwater flow and transport and subsurface remediation

Research Interests

  • Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Contaminant Transport in Groundwater Vadose Zones
  • Mathematical Optimization of Groundwater Remediation Systems: Multi-Objective and Uncertainty Problems
  • Surfactant-Enhanced Dissolution of Nonaqueous Phase Liquids in Subsurface Systems
  • Groundwater Flow in a Fault Zone in the Vicinity of Desert Hot Springs, California
  • Simulation of Saltwater Intrusion in the Guaymas Valley, Sonora, Mexico California
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Understanding the identities, occurrence, and transformation of aerosol organic compounds
  • Identifying organic aerosol constituents from a variety of atmospheric environments
  • Exploration of new LC column chemistries with ultrahigh pressure pumps for fast and thorough separations
  • Aqueous reaction pathways
  • Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Transport & Transformation of Organic Chemicals
  • Boundary Layer Meteorology
  • Sustainability

Research Interests

  • Air and Water Quality
  • Atmosphere-biosphere Exchange of Chemicals
  • Micrometeorology
  • Environmental Analytical Chemistry
  • Sustainability
  • Founding Institute Co-Director (retired)
  • Senior Fellow, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI)
  • Research Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Areas of Expertise

  • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Applications
  • Multispectral and Hyperspectral Remote Sensing
  • Applied Photo Imaging
  • Sea and Lake Ice
  • Environmental in situ Sensing

Research Interests

  • Great Lakes Remote Sensing
  • Ocean Optics
  • High Latitude Oceanography
  • Dynamic Decision Support Systems
  • Water Quality of Inland Lakes
  • Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Environmental cycles of major and trace elements
  • Sediment diagenesis and stratigraphy
  • Chemistry of natural organic matter
  • Wetland biogeochemistry
  • Environmental impact and fate of pollutants
  • Influence of organisms on the chemical environment
  • Role of chemical environment in controlling populations
  • Associate Director, Great Lakes Research Center
  • Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Director, Numerical Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Great Lakes Research Center

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Introductory Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
  • Hydrodynamic Modeling
  • Water Resources Engineering
  • Ecosystem Dynamics Modeling

Research Interests

  • Hydrodynamic modeling
  • Regional climate modeling
  • Coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics
  • Data assimilation and machine learning
  • Biophysical processes in the Great Lakes
  • Estuary and coastal ocean processes