Great Lakes Research & Restoration Projects
Michigan Tech has a unique geographic setting for northern Great Lakes coastal research. The institution resides on the shoreline of an attractive, protected embayment that connects directly to the eastern and western basins of Lake Superior, the largest (in area) and one of the most pristine and picturesque lakes in the world. Researchers at MTU are active in a wide variety of work on the Great Lakes, with numerous cooperative ventures with local, regional, and international agencies and institutions. The Great Lakes aquatics effort on campus has produced five special symposia since 1998, with publication of over 75 articles on research issues. Since 1998, faculty have been involved with projects totaling over $21 million in extramurally funded research, and have developed a large archive of Great Lakes satellite images and a compilation of monitoring data on the lake.
On-campus efforts emphasize multidisciplinary and individual research projects that reach beyond regional confines to address emerging national and global issues with regional, national, and internationally prominent institutions. Research projects include work on global climate change, interface studies of coastal and open-water environments (NSF/NOAA KITES and EEGLE projects), development and deployment of environmental sensing devices, and weather-related prediction of biological variables (NOAA Ecosystem Forecasting, Sea Grant Program). Restoration projects include watershed drainage and rehabilitation projects, development of new techniques for measuring contaminant fluxes, fundamental studies of lower and upper food webs, and Great Lakes Superfund and Restoration initiatives. In addition, there is interest in development of alternative energy options (wind, current, wave electrical turbine generation devices) and ballast water treatment options for control of invasive species. The projects on Lake Superior watersheds, embayments and open waters range from physical limnology to chemical and biological studies to policy and economic studies, and many involve extensive K-12 education and community outreach as well.
Did you know
- Originally, bottles were released in Lake Superior from Ships to determine the direction of coastal currents (Harrington 1895)
- At full flow, the Keweenaw Current moves as much water as the Mississippi River
- In order to achieve statehood in 1837, Michigan reluctantly accepted title to the Upper Peninsula in return for giving up the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio (Lankton and Hyde 1982)