Experts have begun exploring the effects of climate change on the Great Lakes in the winter. Winter grab is a collaboration between more than a dozen US and Canadian universities, including Central Michigan University.
Don Uzarski, Director of CMU’s Institute for Great Lakes Research, says that Winter Grab has been a long time coming.
“It was definitely a point of, ‘Wait a minute’,” Uzarski said, “we should have been doing this for 30 years to understand this ecosystem better.”
Uzarski says researchers auger through the lake ice and record things like water temperature and light levels at various depths. Water samples are taken for as many as 20 types of analyses. Results from the research are expected to be published in peer-reviewed publications and grant proposals.
Uzarski says he hopes the research will continue for years to come.