March 28, 2022

CHICAGO (March 28, 2022) – U.S.  Environmental Protection Agency today announced that Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, will receive a $6,749,825 grant to continue monitoring zooplankton, Mysis, and benthic invertebrates in the Great Lakes. EPA’s grant is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, or GLRI.

Cornell University will use GLRI funding for monitoring and research to support EPA’s Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program, which was initiated in 1983 to assess the heath of the Great Lakes. This work will include continued monitoring of the condition of the food web in each of the Great Lakes.

“Science is the foundation of our agency, but we don’t do it alone,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager Debra Shore. “This collaboration will generate critical information to advance understanding of how changing nutrient conditions, invasive species, and a warming climate are affecting the Great Lakes ecosystem.”

“We at Cornell University, with our collaborators at the Great Lakes Center at SUNY Buffalo State College, are excited to have been selected to monitor biological communities within the Great Lakes ecosystem,” said James Watkins, Ph.D., senior research associate, Cornell University. “This information is indeed vital for assessing the health of these remarkable lakes and for guiding management of one of the largest surface freshwater resources in the world and its fishery.”  

Background:
GLRI projects are part of the larger effort to restore and protect the Great Lakes. Specifically, projects are funded to support the GLRI goal of protecting and restoring the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes basin. In 2019, EPA announced an aggressive plan that will guide Great Lakes restoration and protection activities by EPA and its many partners over the next five years.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here