The Central Michigan University is awarded a grant to renovate a former boat house and install a series of 12 mesocosm tanks that will allow CMU faculty, students, and visiting investigators at the CUM Biological Station (www.cst.cmich.edu/CMUBS/) to conduct controlled and replicated ecological experiments on the pelagic and benthic ecosystems of Lake Michigan as well as beaches and wetlands and to address key ecological questions dealing with the response of these habitats to multiple stressors (e.g., climate change, nutrient enrichment and introduction of non-indigenous species). The proposed renovations will directly impact the research of at least ten faculty members at Central Michigan University, as well as collaborators from other institutions and visitors to CMUBS. For more than 30 years Central Michigan University has operated a Biological Station (CMUBS) on Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan. Until recently the primary focus of research at CMUBS has been on the Island's diverse array of undisturbed terrestrial ecosystems, and the station has also supported an active summer undergraduate and graduate education program.
The improvements will support the University's growing strength in freshwater biology and related disciplines (e.g., geochemistry, remote sensing and GIS) as well as the importance of the lakes to Michigan and the mid-western and north-eastern US. The proposed renovations will significantly enhance the ability of faculty, graduate students and visitors to CMUBS to conduct research on a variety of aquatic and wetland organisms and to address ecological questions related to key topics such as non-indigenous species, endangered species, lake level cycles and global climate change. The new facility at CMUBS will provide additional opportunities to engage interested students in STEM learning and encourage their progress toward STEM-related research and graduate study. It will further enhance the academic success of underrepresented and first-generation college students through many CMU programs including Upward Bound, GEAR UP, Ronald E. McNair Baccalaureate Achievement Program, NSF's URM: "BUMP Into Research at CMU!". The mesocosm facilities will provide enhanced opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations with other institutions. The new facilities will significantly improve the overall scientific infrastructure dedicated to understanding the Great Lakes, and hence augment our understanding of, and ability to protect and manage, one of the most important freshwater systems in the world. Users of the facility will integrate research findings and perspectives into the diverse array of university courses and K-12 presentations that they routinely offer, and the research projects and underlying philosophy will be broadly disseminated through publications in the primary literature, reviews/overviews, seminars, symposia and meetings on an international scale.
In 2006 Central Michigan University (CMU) purchased a former Coastguard Boathouse located on Whiskey Point at the entrance to St. James harbor on Beaver Island Michigan. The support of several generous donors not only enabled the purchase, but helped fund renovations to the foundation, replacement of the doors, windows, siding and roof, and installation of mooring pilings between two piers. The improvements were done while retaining the historic appearance of the building. The boathouse is used for the University’s fleet of small vessels that support the research and teaching conducted at the CMU Biological Station (CMUBS) on Beaver Island. The renovations noted above enabled the NSF-funded project to create an experimental mesocosm facility utilizing approximately 1/3 of the building. The boathouse has three sloping dry-docks, each accessed by one of the three large roll-top doors on the lake-ward side of the structure. The project involved installing a metal grid platform over the eastern-most stall to support 12 large (250 gallon, 4’10" diameter) tanks. Each tank has independently controlled: a) temperature (achieved by circulating water in the tank through a separate water-cooled heat-exchanger); b) light provided by a high output tungsten-halide lamp that simulates sunlight that can be raised and lowered to allow easy access to the tank or to change the light intensity; c) flow rates ranging from stagnant batch culture to flow-through mode; and d) water depth (and volume). Water can be pumped from Lake Michigan adjacent to the boathouse from seasonally installed intakes at the surface or at10 m deep through a 250 or 500 μm filter into a large head tank, from where it can be fed into the 12 tanks via intakes controlled by separate pumps. Construction and testing of the mesocosm was completed by April 2012, but the facility was not used in the 2012 field-season because of a delay in obtaining the permits required to discharge water from the system; these have now been obtained and the facility will be used for research beginning in 2013. The mesocosms will be used by CMU faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students and by visiting researchers to perform replicated controlled experiments to determine the effect of changes in light, temperature, nutrients and other environmental factors on organisms ranging from microbes to fish and aquatic plants. This research will increase our understanding of, and ability to sustainably manage, Lake Michigan and the other Laurentian Great Lakes. The mesocosms will be used during the CMUBS field season from April to October. The facility will also be used for the public-outreach efforts of CMUBS. CMUBS held a public open house on 17 July 2012 that was attended by over 500 people.
