What are Water Drops?

U of M Water Drops | Issue 7 | Spring 2023 

The story: Renovations to SAFL's Outdoor StreamLab

The storyteller: Clare Boerigter, communications manager for CSE’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, and Sophie Strauss, owner of True Medusa and former SAFL communications intern

SAFL’s Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) is about to embark on its first major research season following some exciting renovations! The OSL is an experimental stream channel and floodplain system that offers laboratory-quality measurements and control in a field-scale setting. Operating since 2008, the OSL has been home to a wide range of experiments linking physical, chemical and biological stream processes which have been conducted by researchers from multiple departments. This includes experiments on native mussel habitat, nutrient dynamics in floodplains and stream restoration. The OSL is also an excellent facility for teaching and training students, who can practice techniques in a hands-on experimental setting. 

Recent renovations have made the OSL a more effective and accessible research facility than ever before. Check out the short video to learn more about these exciting additions!

Are you interested in working in the newly renovated OSL? Please contact OSL Research Manager Jessica Kozarek at jkozarek@umn.edu or 612-624-4679.

U of M Water Drops | Issue 6 | Spring 2023 

The story: A Sweeping Solution to Stormwater Pollution

The storyteller: Maggie Karschnia, Stormwater Extension Educator for Minnesota Sea Grant and Water Resources Center

A sweepingly simple solution can help us to reduce stormwater pollution and flooding. In Minnesota, snowmelt and precipitation become stormwater runoff. Stormwater enters storm drains and flows to the nearest body of water taking pollutants and organic debris with it. Organic debris can also clog storm drains and result in flooding. Street sweeping is one simple solution to reducing stormwater pollution and flooding by removing debris from streets that could end up clogging storm drains or decaying and adding unwanted phosphorus to our lakes and rivers. 

Check out “A Sweeping Solution to Stormwater Pollution” to learn more!

Story contacts: Maggie Karschnia at maggiek@umn.edu

U of M Water Drops | Issue 5 | Spring 2023 

The story: “What Makes State-Tribal Consultation Meaningful: Insights Gained from Interviews with Tribal State Leaders” – a Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin Research Summary

The storytellers: Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin Collaborative

“I think consultation requires listening and certainly at least incorporating some of what’s heard in a consultation. Otherwise it’s not meaningful.” – Tribal agency staff member

Manoomin (Ojibwe), Psiŋ (Dakota), Wild Rice (English), or Zizania palustris (scientific) is an aquatic grass and food sacred to Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region. In 1973, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) established the 10 mg/L Wild Rice water quality sulfate standard because of tribal and scientific validation showing that Manoomin/Psiŋ is highly sensitive to sulfate pollutants. The standard went largely unenforced for years and in 2011 the US EPA mandated the state to begin enforcement. From 2011-2017, the MPCA led a rulemaking process to review and amend the Wild Rice sulfate standard, which included consulting with tribal nations. The outcome of the process—a new equation-based rule—was ultimately disapproved by the EPA’s Chief Administrative Law Judge.

In 2018, researchers with the Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin Collaborative (“First We Must Consider Wild Rice/Psiŋ”) and the Center for Changing Landscapes (CCL) designed a project to evaluate the 2011-2017 rulemaking process. The result is a two-page best practices guide that highlights strategies for—as well as some of the historical and ongoing barriers to— meaningful state-tribal consultation. Quotes and insights are featured from MPCA and tribal participants in the rulemaking process themselves. True to the mission of CCL, this is among the center’s many products and publications that are the result of interdisciplinary community-based research methods, innovative multi-methods evaluation, and inclusive project planning.

Check out “What Makes State-Tribal Consultation Meaningful: Insights Gained from Interviews with Tribal State Leaders” to learn more!

Story contacts: Hannah Jo King at king1306@umn.edu, and the Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin Collaborative at manoominpsin-gc@umn.edu

U of M Water Drops | Issue 4 | Spring 2023 

The story: Analyzing potential public health concern of walleye mercury concentrations triggered by zebra mussel invasion

The storyteller: Denver Link, Master’s Student in Water Resources Science

The presence of zebra mussels, an aquatic invasive species, leads to changes in lake ecosystems that negatively affect walleye. The invasive mussels consume resources that walleye typically rely on for energy. This, in turn, could cause walleye to consume energy sources that have higher concentrations of mercury. Given the popularity of walleye for consumption, zebra mussel invasion is of concern for public health. 

To explore the potential impact of zebra mussels on fish communities, Dr. Gretchen Hansen, Denver Link, and their team have conducted a study involving the collection of fish and invertebrates from more than twenty lakes in Minnesota. They have collected mercury and stable isotope samples to compare the food web dynamics in lakes with and without zebra mussel invasion. The goal of the research is to improve understanding of zebra mussel impacts on fish communities and the potential public health risk associated with their invasion.

Check out “Analyzing potential public health concern of walleye mercury concentrations triggered by zebra mussel invasion” to learn more!

Story contact: Denver Link at linkx168@umn.edu. 

U of M Water Drops | Issue 3 | Spring 2023

The story: NRRI Lab focuses on water quality and protection

The storyteller: June Breneman, Senior Communications Specialist and External Affairs Manager for the Natural Resources Research Institute

The Central Analytical Lab at UMD’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) is a water research asset across the University of Minnesota system, with expertise that’s deep and wide. Water-related projects large and small – from local stream monitoring to Great Lakes surveillance – are handled under strict certification protocols set by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). 

The lab team supports large resource agency projects and can also provide data to small organizations, like lake associations. 

“Our deep knowledge of lakes and streams in this region allows us to weed out suspect results,” said Beth Berhardt, lab manager. “Our team effort is our superpower.”

Check out “NRRI Lab focuses on water quality and protection” to learn more!

Story contact: June Breneman at jbrenema@d.umn.edu. 

U of M Water Drops | Issue 2 | Spring 2023 

The story: “Eyes on Large Lakes” in Open Rivers

The storytellers: Erik Brown, Sergei Katsev, Sam Kelly, Ted Ozersky, Doug Ricketts, Kathryn Schreiner, Cody Sheik, Robert Sterner, and Lisa Sundberg of the Large Lakes Observatory

Freshwater is one of our most valuable natural resources, but large fractions of Earth's liquid surface freshwater occur in a surprisingly small number of locations. For instance, only five of our planet’s lakes contain more than half of all available liquid freshwater. These five, as well as other large lakes, are also important reservoirs of biodiversity and provide immense economic value to tens of millions. The Large Lakes Observatory, located on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus, is the only institute in the world dedicated to the scientific study of all of the Earth’s large lakes.

Check out “Eyes on Large Lakes” to learn more about the critical work ongoing at the Large Lakes Observatory. 

Story contact: Lisa Sundberg at sundb103@d.umn.edu. 

U of M Water Drops | Issue 1 | Spring 2023 

The story: A Beyond the Lab Seminar with Whitewater State Park Naturalist Sara Holger - “The Ghost Valley”

The storyteller: Clare Boerigter, communications manager for CSE’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory

Last semester, I was excited to invite Sara Holger to give SAFL’s Beyond the Lab seminar, with co-hosts Professor Andy Wickert (ESCI), graduate students Shanti Penprase and Jimmy Wood, and postdoctoral fellow Hima Hassenruck-Gudipati. 

It was fascinating to learn from Sara about southern Minnesota’s Whitewater River watershed and the ways in which human land use and erosion catastrophically altered human lives and the valley’s natural resources. Once home to five towns, the Whitewater River Valley began to experience extreme flooding in the 1920s, with towns flooding up to 20 times per year and floods eventually depositing 15 feet of sediment in the valley. Today, visitors to the valley will find only ghost towns and the footprints of the nearly 100 farms that vanished. 

Check out Sara’s seminar for the full story, including oral history recordings!

Story contact: Clare Boerigter at boeri007@umn.edu