Environment

Experts from Israel, Great Lakes compare big water

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By MORGAN LINN
Capital News Service

LANSING — While Lake Michigan protectors are fighting a threatened carp invasion, managers in Israel are dumping them into the Sea of Galilee. That’s just one of the differences in managing two of the world’s largest lakes that emerged during a recent conference between lake managers from Israel and the Great Lakes region. The Sea of Galilee – or Lake Kinneret – and Lake Michigan differ greatly in size, but experts from both areas shared common experiences and found ways of learning from each other at the Michigan State University conference
Lake Kinneret, in northeast Israel, is only about 13 miles long by 8 miles wide but is the largest freshwater lake in Israel.That’s much smaller than Lake Michigan, which is 307 miles long by 118 miles wide, but the researchers said the two bodies of water share similar challenges. And the differences are also a learning opportunity for both groups, they said. Where management of the two lakes differs greatly involves silver carp.

Environment

Invasives will be caught on screen for all to see

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By KEVIN DUFFY
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan researchers are building a time machine to fight freshwater invasive species. The project will let them navigate through a 150-year historical collection of plants and animals largely hidden among the storerooms of Great Lakes museums.
A $2.5 million federal grant will help move their collections from cupboards and shelves to a computer database through a process called digitization. Plant and animal specimens will be labeled and photographed for online access. A cooperative of 28 Great Lakes universities, including 11 in Michigan, will bypass the need for research staff to spend hours in a collection room pulling samples of North American fish, plants and mollusks. The project will allow online access to more than 1.7 million specimens, including 2,500 species, said Ken Cameron, who is leading the project and is director of the Wisconsin State Herbarium.