Suttons Bay, MI – Emily Tyner of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will present a public seminar on botulism in northern Lake Michigan. She will be focusing on recent changes in food web structure and dissolved oxygen dynamics. The program will be held on Monday October 10 at 7 pm at the Inland Seas Education Center in Suttons Bay. This seminar is free and open to the public.
The Great Lakes ecosystem has been subject to massive changes in recent years. The invasive zebra and quagga mussels have greatly altered the food web and concentrated nutrients on the lake bottom while clearing the water column of phytoplankton. This has caused a decrease in populations of native invertebrates and fish. The arrival of the round goby has also created havoc on the lake bottom. The combination of invasive mussels and gobies has resulted in an increase of botulism deaths to native fish and water birds. Emily Tyner’s research at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is attempting to determine the complex relationships within the nearshore food web and to find ways to mitigate fish and bird deaths from botulism.
Emily Tyner, a native of Ann Arbor, began her career interest in the Great Lakes as a summer intern with the Inland Seas Education Association. She is now employed by the National Park Service and is working on her Masters Degree at the University of Wisconsin Great Lakes Water Institute in Milwaukee.
You can see a new video featuring Emily Tyner and her work (and the Schoolship!) by clicking here.
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| Round goby, quagga mussels and algae...a sometimes deadly combination that results in botulism deaths of water birds and native fishes. |
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