Great Lakes

Invasive species awareness: A face you don’t want to see

bighead carp for GB

The bighead carp, shown here, which can grow to be larger than a beagle, is one of four species of Asian carps that threaten to invade the Great Lakes, including Lake Erie. Scientists say the fish, if they get in, could do significant damage. “Once an aquatic invasive species becomes established, eradication ranges from difficult and costly to impossible,” says Eugene Braig, aquatic ecosystems program director for OSU Extension. “Prevention is key.” Read more. (Photo: Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee.)

Tomorrow: What will climate change mean to invasive species in Lake Erie?

Zebra mussel cluster. Photo taken by D. Jude, Univ. of Michigan.

Ohio State’s next Climate Change webinar is tomorrow (1/17). Speaking will be the University of Wisconsin’s Galen McKinley on “Climate and Carbon Impacts on Productivity, Chemistry, and Invasive Species in the Great Lakes.” It’s part of an ongoing series by Ohio State’s Climate Change Outreach Team, whose members include scientists with CFAES.

‘Lake Erie, the Great Lakes, and Congress’

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who represents northern Ohio’s 9th District, kicks off Stone Lab’s summer speaker series this Thursday evening (June 14). You can attend in person or watch online. Stone Lab is Ohio State’s biological field station at Put-in-Bay and is part of our college.

Last winter, in a speech in the House of Representatives during Great Lakes Week, Kaptur spoke in support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and of increasing efforts to control Asian carp and harmful algal blooms.

For teachers in the Great Lakes region: Help in teaching climate science

Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State’s Climate Change Outreach Team are offering two free one-day workshops to introduce an updated Great Lakes Climate Change Curriculum. They’re for you if you’re a Great Lakes-area science teacher and you want to integrate “regionally relevant” climate science into your classroom. Here are the dates and locations.

Lake effects: Will Great Lakes see greater invaders?

What does climate change hold for the Great Lakes? Especially in terms of invasive species? That’s the topic of the next webinar by Ohio State’s Climate Change Outreach Team, which has members from our college. It’s this Tuesday (March 20) at noon. Speaking is Cindy Kolar, science advisor in the U.S. Geological Survey’s Fisheries and Aquatic Endangered Resources Program. Free to register.

PD reporter to talk today on environmental journalism

Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Michael Scott will present “Environmental Journalism: Avoiding Advocacy and Advocating Accuracy” today (10/26) at OARDC in Wooster. He writes often about the environment, especially the Great Lakes, and is a 2011 fellow in Ohio State’s Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism. 3:30-4:30 p.m., 121 Fisher Auditorium, with a video link to 244 Kottman Hall, Columbus. Free and open to the public. It’s part of the Entomology Departmental Seminar Series.