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Every five years, the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute (WRI) is evaluated to determine eligibility for continued support under the federal Water Resources Research Act of 1984, which is administered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

WRI recently received the results of that review of 2016-20 research, student support and information transfer. The headline is the USGS found that WRI is “performing at an outstanding level.”

The USGS review panel assessed WRI’s effectiveness in using its federal grant, as well as required matching funds, which come from the state of Wisconsin. The panel also called out notable features in how WRI operates:

  • The support for high-quality research, with a special call-out to collaborative work on mercury cycling with UW-Madison and the USGS’s Mercury Research Lab. Another factor that was praised was the support for early faculty in the request for proposal process. In fact, the panel complimented the entire proposal review process that effectively draws on subject matter experts to evaluate what prospective investigators would study.
  • An active and innovative information transfer effort that results in quality products. Reviewers particularly appreciated podcasting as a way to convey science stories.
  • The focus on training post-graduates through fellowships with state agencies.
  • The large-scale engagement with USGS, including at least five collaborations and 14 co- authored publications and joint work with students.

“We work every day to leverage our federal and state funding effectively to help communities across Wisconsin, and it is truly a collective team effort,” said Jennifer Hauxwell, WRI’s research director. “From the dozens of researchers at Wisconsin universities across the state who step up to address our shared water challenges to institute staff who coordinate our research program, create student training opportunities, manage the distribution of funding and communicate stories and archive findings, we are so very grateful. We still have a lot to learn about Wisconsin’s water resources and community needs, and we look forward to tackling future challenges and opportunities together.”

Person in a red cap standing in a corn field with a tool for scientific study.
A WRI researcher prepares a tool to survey groundwater in an area of southern Wisconsin prone to flooding. Photo by WRI.

WRI is one of 54 national water research institutes. For 60 years, it has been a locally focused state and federal partnership supporting unbiased research and information transfer, which leads to safeguarding Wisconsin’s water quantity, quality and management. Some of the research projects supported during this evaluation period looked at naturally occurring contaminants like strontium, radium and manganese. Other projects explored land use practices and the resulting levels of nitrate in groundwater.

The post Water Resources Institute recognized for strong science, science communication and student support first appeared on WRI.

Original Article

News Release | WRI

News Release | WRI

https://www.wri.wisc.edu/news/water-resources-institute-recognized-for-strong-science-science-communication-and-student-support/

Moira Harrington

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In: Andre Bennett, Christine Custer, Emily Cornelius Ruhs, Eve Muslich, Gavin Dehnert, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Jonathan Gilbert, Lac Courte Orielles Ojibwe University, lake water, maple sap, maple syrup, Ojibwe Ceded Territories, PFAS, quantifying PFAS, Robert Flynn, Sean Strom, tree swallows, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USGS, Voigt Intertribal Task Force, walleye, wild rice, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, wolves and PFAS levels, Zhewaab Reggie Cadotte
Eve Muslich, University of Wisconsin-Madison, pours maple sap from a collecting bag into a bottle for testing for PFAS. Image credit: Bonnie Willison, Wisconsin Sea Grant

April 3, 2023
By Marie Zhuikov

When Jonathan Gilbert, director of biological services with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, received a report about levels of PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) in wolves taken during the 2021 hunting season in Wisconsin, he was flummoxed. The scientific report contained terms and measurements that he, even as a biologist, didn’t understand. Gilbert’s quest for answers led to a larger project that is testing maple syrup, walleyes and lake water for PFAS in areas of the Midwest where Ojibwe tribal members harvest food.

During the wolf season, hunters volunteered their wolf remains to GLIFWC for PFAS testing. Gilbert said about 40% of the wolves had detectable levels of these chemicals. He was given Gavin Dehnert’s name as someone who could help answer his questions about the PFAS report. Dehnert, an emerging contaminants scientist, specializes in PFAS. Dehnert works for Wisconsin Sea Grant, a sister agency to the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute (WRI).

Jonathan Gilbert, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. Image credit: Bonnie Willison, Wisconsin Sea Grant

“So, I called him up and we had a nice conversation and he answered all my questions and educated me quite a bit on this,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert needed to present the wolf data to the Voigt Intertribal Task Force – a group composed of 10 of the 11 Ojibwe tribes that harvest from Ceded Territories in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The task force ensures safe harvest limits and is advised by GLIFWC. Gilbert invited Dehnert to attend the meeting.

Dehnert said, “We spent probably two to three hours just listening to the questions they had, concerns they had – big questions they were really hoping to answer.” Those questions involved PFAS levels in fish, wild rice, and maple syrup and other things tribal members harvest on a regular basis.

“Gavin kept saying, ‘Well, we don’t know, we don’t know.’ But he took what he heard there, and he wrote up a grant proposal to test the waters in rice lakes and in walleye lakes, and to test the sap of maple trees. That’s exactly what the tribes were telling him they were really concerned about,” Gilbert said.

The three-year tribally driven project, “Quantifying PFAS bioaccumulation and health impacts on economically important plants and animals associated with aquatic ecosystems in Ceded Territories,” was recently funded by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Resources Research Act Program, the same program through which WRI is funded.

The project has three goals: 1) Assess aquatic environments for PFAS contamination in the Ceded Territories, 2) Determine the accumulation of PFAS in different plants and animals and 3) Understand the health impacts from PFAS exposure. In addition to Dehnert and Gilbert, the project involves Emily Cornelius Ruhs with the University of Chicago, Sean Strom with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Christine Custer and Robert Flynn with USGS.

“Zhewaab” Reggie Cadotte, Native American Studies Faculty and Cultural Coordinator, Lac Courte Orielles Ojibwe University, and Gavin Dehnert, Wisconsin Sea Grant, inspect a maple tree for sap sampling on Lac Courte Orielles tribal land in northern Wisconsin. Image credit: Bonnie Willison, Wisconsin Sea Grant

Dehnert said that part one of the project will explore lakes where there’s high harvests of walleye and other fish species and wild rice in Ceded Territories. Researchers will look for the presence of PFAS and determine the levels.

Maple trees were tapped for maple sap collection on Lac Courte Orielles tribal lands to determine levels of PFAS. Image credit: Bonnie Willison, Wisconsin Sea Grant

Part two involves understanding the bioaccumulation of PFAS in harvestable goods. “If we know that it’s in the water source where these walleye or wild rice are living, we want to be able to have some sort of correlation between how much PFAS is in the lake water and then how much is then getting into the fish and wild rice,” Dehnert said. Gilbert stressed that they don’t know how much PFAS moves from the water into fish and plants. They will also test vats of maple sap harvested by tribal members.

Part three will look at impacts on organisms that live in the aquatic environments, focusing on tree swallows. This part, led by Ruhs, will explore how PFAS can impact the immune function of tree swallows in different life stages, from nestlings to adults. The swallows are considered an indicator species for contaminated water because they feed near their nesting area almost solely on aquatic insects. Researchers will take blood samples from the birds and look at white blood cell count and antibodies.

Part one will begin this spring with sampling of maple sap and lake water in 25 lakes.

Dehnert is looking forward to the project.

“It’s not focusing on just science for science. There’s a true actionable side to it. That was why we chose the plants and animals that were highly harvested by these tribes. If you’re finding high concentrations of PFAS in these types of harvestable goods, they are going to disproportionately impact the tribes because they are relying on them for their sustainability and food consumption. Sometimes in science people might look at different plants and animals that don’t really have a cultural tie. So that, to me, has always been why we got so excited about this project,” he said.

A research project team collects maple tree sap for PFAS sampling on Lac Courte Orielles tribal land in spring 2023. Pictured, left to right, are Eve Muslich, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Andre Bennett, Lac Courte Orielles Ojibwe University; Gavin Dehnert, Wisconsin Sea Grant; Jonathan Gilbert, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission; and “Zhewaab” Reggie Cadotte, Lac Courte Orielles Ojibwe University. Image credit: Bonnie Willison, Wisconsin Sea Grant
The post New project tests Ceded Territories for PFAS at request of tribes first appeared on WRI.

Original Article

News Release | WRI

News Release | WRI

https://www.wri.wisc.edu/news/new-project-tests-ceded-territories-for-pfas-at-request-of-tribes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-project-tests-ceded-territories-for-pfas-at-request-of-tribes

Marie Zhuikov

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In: USGS

With the new year comes a rating of “outstanding” for the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute (WRI) based on a review conducted in 2019 by the program’s funders at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Earl A. Greene, director of the Water Resources Research Act Program, transmitted the review results to WRI’s Director Jim Hurley in a Jan. 2, 2020 letter that commended WRI for its strong program, “well focused on research to solve state water issues, student education and information transfer. This well balanced program is instrumental in achieving the goals of the Institute.”

The letter went on to call out the efforts of funded researchers who are publishing at a high rate in well-regarded publications, the program’s leadership and excellent information transfer efforts that are well integrated with research.

Water researcher Kevin Masarik is a collaborator with WRI. Here, he’s sampling water in the Central Sands region. Photo by Bonnie Willison.

The federal review panel evaluated the activities of 54 water resources institutes and centers, based in each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. The years under review had been 2011 through 2015.

“Each day, I am gratified by the work that we are able to accomplish through the Water Resources Institute, whether it’s supporting Wisconsin’s researchers in finding ways to identify and reduce contaminants in our drinking water, understanding the effects of climate change on Wisconsin waters or supporting students in learning and in developing our workforce. Along with our mission to share research findings with you and other relevant audiences, we play an important role in addressing Wisconsin’s water challenges and opportunities,” said WRI’s Associate Director Jennifer Hauxwell.

“The findings of this U.S. Geological Survey review of our program are just another welcome validation for what we are able to do for our fellow citizens who rely on one of Wisconsin’s most valuable assets – water,” she concluded.

Original Article

News Release – WRI

News Release – WRI

https://www.wri.wisc.edu/news/outstanding-results-for-wri-following-a-five-year-review/

Moira Harrington