NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry (OCEAN) has awarded $750,000 to a multi-institution project to study the vulnerability of the Lake Huron ecosystem to global change.

Dr. Bill Currie, a professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, is co-principal investigator of the research project, along with Jason Martina, the project lead investigator at Texas State University. Other participating universities are Michigan Technological University, Michigan State University, University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Texas-Dallas.

The project has two primary goals. The first goal is to increase the participation of underrepresented minority students in earth sciences and remote-sensing and modeling research funded by NASA. The second goal is to assess changes in aquatic ecosystems around Lake Huron in response to pressures of nutrient inflow, invasive vegetation, and water-level changes over a 30-year period.

A cohort of minority students will travel to the Great Lakes region from Texas each summer to participate in this research. The students will be mentored and trained by Currie and other researchers from the participating universities. Research in this project will involve linking models and remote-sensing data across scales to understand the effects of nutrient delivery to coastal ecosystems and coastal waters.

“This is a great fit for SEAS because we are strongly committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the fields of environment and sustainability research,” said Currie. “Undergraduate minority students from two Texas universities will be funded to travel to the Great Lakes region as part of this program.”

This is an edited excerpt from a SEAS press release.