This award supports the acquisition of instrumentation for aquatic research and education at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UWO). The project goals are to: (1) support aquatic biology and cross-disciplinary research; (2) provide new opportunities for university and K-12 teaching; and (3) initiate public outreach activities focusing on scientific approaches to understand and manage aquatic resources. One theme linking all these goals is the use of instruments to study and monitor aquatic systems for drinking water quality, ecological integrity, pollution dispersal, and other public concerns. Instrumentation to be acquired include: (1) instrument sondes, sensors, and samplers for use in experimental enclosures, (2) laboratory instruments to provide calibration and validation for field instruments; and (3) an artificial streams system for controlled experiments.
The research activities that will be supported by these new instruments include biogeochemical studies of the Fox-Wolf watershed (augmenting major efforts downstream to study eutrophication and pollution in Green Bay), mechanistic studies of growth regulation in aquatic consumers, experimental studies of wild rice critical to re-introduction efforts, and physiological ecology studies of phytoplankton exopolymer production. We will also use these facilities as research training tools for university courses, undergraduate and graduate (M.S.) projects, and for science teacher training.
