High school students were fully immersed in freshwater learning during the Freshwater Summer Field Experience, funded by the Freshwater Collaborative. The 17 students came from 11 different Wisconsin counties, and one student traveled all the way from Colorado to participate.
The weeklong camp gives high school juniors the opportunity to explore western Wisconsin’s freshwater systems and learn about freshwater-related degree programs through the Universities of Wisconsin and potential careers.
Activities this year included:
fish biology in the Little Niagara Creek at UW-Eau Claire
beaver biology at Beaver Creek Reserve
stream monitoring in Birch Creek and Galloway Creek in Menomonie (high schoolers worked with student researchers from the Red Cedar Watershed Monitoring project led by UW-Stout and also supported by the Freshwater Collaborative)
stream monitoring in Kelly Creek in River Falls
bog freshwater monitoring in Chippewa County Forest
monitoring engineered Lake Wissota in Chippewa Falls
touring the Eau Claire Wastewater Treatment Plant
interacting with groundwater flow models
presenting mini research projects
Faculty instructors were from UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, and UW-Stout, and the mentoring team included two undergraduate student teaching assistants.
Eva Riveros from Fordham University was excited to embark on environmental research through the Freshwater@UW Summer Research Opportunities Program. She’s learning a new skillset with research into pesticide leaching and how water moves through soil.
Funding for this program is provided by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Sea Grant, the UW Water Resources Institute and Water@UW-Madison.
Lake sturgeon first evolved around 200 million years ago, around the same time as the dinosaurs. This unique fish species once numbered more than two million. Fish biologists estimate about 3,000 adult fish exist in the Great Lakes proper today.
Wisconsin is an international leader in lake sturgeon conservation. The state’s efforts target sustaining populations that use four major tributaries of Green Bay for reproduction: the Fox, Oconto, Peshtigo and Menominee Rivers. The Freshwater Collaborative is funding undergraduate research at UW-Green Bay that centers on lake sturgeon reproduction, survival during early life stages and behavior.
“Because of the evolutionary history of lake sturgeon, and their cultural significance in the region, no one really wants to see the species at risk of extinction,” says Patrick Forsythe, an associate professor of biology at UW-Green Bay. He has studied lake sturgeon for about 20 years.
Lake sturgeon spawn in rivers, and their larvae need a long stretch of river to provide protective habitat for growth before they move into the bay and then Lake Michigan, where predators abound. The Menominee and Park Mill Dams, located about a mile upstream from Green Bay, restrict reproduction for lake sturgeon living in the bay.
Enter the Menomonee River Fish Passage Project, which allows adult lake sturgeon to access important spawning habitats upstream from the dams. Sturgeon swim into an “elevator” inside the Menominee Dam. They are then moved by truck upstream of the Park Mill Dam to reproduce further up the Menominee River. The adults and juveniles then journey back through several bypass routes in the dams and into the bay.
Using genetic techniques to determine parentage of recently produced larvae emerging from habitat downstream from the Grand Rapids Dam, Forsythe and his team have determined that nearly 90 percent of the fish passed upstream of the two lower dams —and those impeding access to historic spawning sites — reproduce successfully. That’s good news for conservation efforts, but it’s only on part of the equation.
With funding from the Freshwater Collaborative and supporting partners including the Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act and We Energies, Forsythe and students in his lab are looking at survival rates. Do juveniles in their first year of life survive the journey? If so, which routes do they take through the dams before entering the Bay of Green Bay?
Students are collecting larvae and raising them until they are large enough to surgically implant acoustic and PIT transmitters. The transmitters will track the fish as they move downstream. The collected data will inform whether river and dam management can improve survival rates of juveniles as they journey downstream. This knowledge could improve overall conservation efforts.
Forsythe says students are directly involved in every aspect of the project. This includes experimental design, setting up the tailer to collecting larvae, inserting transmitters, and caring for the fish before they are released and tracking can commence.
“This project gives students a lot of experiences,” he says. “My students are in a really good position to apply for graduate school or get their first job. I’m really proud of that.”
The students routinely participate in planning sessions with working professionals, giving them networking opportunities and insight into the complexities of large collaborative projects.
Partners include USGS, Wisconsin Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wisconsin DNR, Michigan DNR, the cities of Menominee and Marinette, WE Energies and the Mitigation Enhancement Fund, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Michigan Hydropower Reform Coalition, River Alliance of Wisconsin, and Eagle Creek Renewable Energy (owner and operator of the Menominee and Park Mill Dams) and fish biologists from Carlton University in Canada.
Lauren Klawiter is an undergraduate working on the project. She gained so much experience last year that she snagged a summer internship with Colorado State University. She is working with the Environment for Management of Military Lands at Fort McCoy.
“I will be using my skills from last summer and adding additional skills, which I am extremely excited for,” she says. “I have really enjoyed my experiences with fish. I hope to obtain a position working at a fishery or potentially with the DNR.”
Klawiter shared her research at Research in the Rotunda in March 2024. She also presented it at the 154th National American Fisheries Society Conference, attended by more than 3,000 people. Graduate students Steve Hughes and Zach Nordstrom presented posters at the AFS conference as well.
In 2023, students helped collect and care for about 1,500 lake sturgeon. This summer, three new undergraduates and a graduate student joined the team to continue the research. The project is expected to wrap up at the end of 2025 when results will be submitted for publication.
The 2024 Research in the Rotunda featured 16 Freshwater Collaborative-funded research projects. Students shared more about their experience.
Student: Andrew Glasgow University: UW-Madison Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Emphasis Graduation date: December 2023 Mentor: Haoran Wei
Summarize the research and your role.
The research was aimed at developing a novel, innovative approach for detecting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. Despite PFAS exposure’s strong links to various cancers and other health effects, current PFAS detection approaches are very expensive and time-consuming, rendering them inaccessible to many communities — especially marginalized groups and those without financial resources. This inaccessibility is made even more pressing because marginalized communities are more likely to be continually exposed to high levels of PFAS in their drinking water.
Together with my advisors, Hanwei Wang and Dr. Haoran Wei, I worked to assess the viability of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as a low-cost approach for the rapid detection of PFAS in drinking water. My role consisted of preparing, testing, and analyzing experimental data for different PFAS species, to determine if our experimental approach could help detect various compounds. I likewise had the unique opportunity to choose many of the next steps for experimental and variable analysis, and gained experience with advanced scientific instrumentation (e.g., scanning electron microscopy). Much of my work during the research program was accomplished in an independent manner, with my advisors being available for consultation as needed.
What skills have you gained?
The most valuable skill was gaining a strong comfort with the research process. Most of my prior research work had been “automatic,” with next steps being self-evident due to the nature of the experiments. My PFAS research through the SROP required a much more intensive and nuanced approach, as a slew of confounding variables (e.g., chemical properties) could potentially be influencing the results we obtained. Learning to trace and navigate the potential influence of these factors was an arduous process at first, but one that I believe made me a much more versatile researcher.
What was your favorite part of this project?
My favorite part was the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals who are passionate about research that impacts the environment and society. Over the summer, one graduate student shared with me the importance of developing friendships with one’s coworkers, as they serve as a powerful motivator when the research process inevitably becomes discouraging. I found this piece of wisdom to be unequivocally true through my summer research experience and hope to continue to apply it during my future research endeavors.
What are your plans after graduate?
In autumn 2024, I will begin pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. In the interim between my graduation and the start of my doctoral studies, I have been working as a research assistant in two laboratories to gain additional experience with PFAS and contaminant research. Career-wise, I hope to become an environmental chemistry professor, to improve public health through the development of novel detection and treatment approaches for contaminants.
How will this experience help you attain your career goals?
This experience has provided me with significant knowledge and skills that will allow me to navigate graduate school and a career in the environmental chemistry field more easily. The experience solidified my dedication to scientific research that can improve society. For example, a true hope of mine one day is to aid in addressing the widespread and marked PFAS contamination in Okinawa, Japan. This goal stems directly from my research through the SROP, as the experience allowed me to fully realize my passion for research that can tangibly address severe environmental injustices.
Gabby Gonzales from the University of Michigan shares how the Freshwater@UW Summer Research Opportunities Program has allowed her to step out of the lab and into the field. She’s conducting wild rice research with Sea Grant in Manitowoc.
Funding for this program is provided by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Sea Grant, the UW Water Resources Institute and Water@UW-Madison.
What’s it like to view a shipwreck through an underwater camera or to wade into a stream to collect fish and invertebrates? Students from UW-Parkside, UW-Green Bay and Calvin College did this and more as they explored freshwater habitats along Lake Michigan’s coast from Green Bay to Racine.
The students were enrolled in our “Human Interactions with Lake Michigan Coastal Ecosystems” course, which was developed and is taught by faculty from UW-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences, UW-Green Bay and UW-Parkside. The three-credit summer course teaches students how Wisconsin’s freshwater coast has been impacted by climate change, wastewater runoff, agricultural runoff and coastal erosion.
One highlight was using side scan sonar and an ROV to explore the Francis Hinton shipwreck, part of NOAA’s Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
This course is open to any university student. Lodging and meals are provided through funding by the Freshwater Collaborative.
The 2024 Research in the Rotunda featured 16 Freshwater Collaborative-funded research projects. Students shared more about their experience.
Student: Kal Breeden University: UW-Stout Major: Environmental Science with a concentration in Natural Resource Conservation and minors in Plant Science and GIS Expected graduation date: May 2025 Mentors: Keith Gilland and Nicole Hayes
Summarize the research and your role.
This research project was focused on monitoring the water quality of streams and lakes in the Red Cedar River watershed throughout Dunn County. My role as a student researcher was to work with my peers on sampling or research and report back to our professors/supervisors about our progress.
We conducted work in the field and the lab during the summer and continued working on research projects during the school year. During the summer, we sampled over 120 different stream sites repeatedly and went out on Lake Menomin or Lake Tainter on a weekly basis. Last summer, we added sediment samplers to our urban stream, Galloway Creek, which became an important part of my research, which focused on how restoration impacts sediment loading and other factors in urban streams. My research in 2023 was about how restoration projects impact trout streams over time.
What skills did you learn?
I learned many new skills related to limnology, laboratory work, and especially fieldwork. I learned how to use different pieces of equipment and collect different types of water quality data in the field or through experimentation. I also learned about equipment management and organization and how to set yourself up to be efficient when out in the field.
What has been your favorite part about this experience?
I really enjoyed spending so much time outside and visiting new places, and I had a lot of fun with my coworkers. I found that I love fieldwork and how it helps you form a meaningful connection with a location and the data you’re collecting there. A few of my favorite memories would be catching a giant water bug, catching a lamprey for the first time, stumbling upon deer fawns hidden in the grass, seeing a lot of ghost pipe plants, and finding a coyote skull.
What are some of the opportunities you’ve had because of this research?
Thanks to this experience, I was chosen to present research at Research in the Rotunda twice, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research twice, and at other events such as UW-Stout’s Research Day and the Board of Regents Student Showcase. In addition, thanks to the fieldwork experience I’ve gained, I was offered and accepted a job with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks this summer working as a Wildlife Habitat Plant Technician, which I am very excited about.
What do you plan to do after graduation?
I hope to continue a career in environmental conservation and monitoring. I’m very interested in all kinds of plants, animals, and water resources and could see myself working with any of those. I’m very excited to do more fieldwork and learn more about the environment, wherever I end up.
How will this experience help you attain your career goals?
This experience has already helped me attain my career goals by giving me valuable fieldwork and laboratory experience that employers look for in a job candidate. Working on a project like this for two years has been such a valuable experience, and I am so glad to have been involved.
