Unbeknownst to some, our Great Lakes national parks play a significant role in the effort to restore the great waters they represent. Each panelist will highlight a GLRI-supported project at a different park: restoring historic wetlands at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, researching changes in nearshore ecosystem dynamics at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and planning for wetland and stream improvements at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Discussion will explore how national parks can best contribute to Great Lakes restoration – given their abilities to serve as “living laboratories” and to directly engage the public (i.e., park visitors) through education and volunteerism, and will facilitate a debate on “research vs. on-the-ground restoration” in the context of GLRI funding allocations.

1. Lake Michigan’s Changing Nearshore: Understanding Type E Avian
Botulism Outbreaks at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Emily Tyner1,2, Brenda Moraska Lafrancois1, Harvey Bootsma2,
Chris Otto2
1. UWM-School of Freshwater Sciences
2. National Park Service-Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

3. Photos: A.Van Zoeren

4. GLRI Project #91
Predict and prevent avian botulism outbreaks
• Beach monitoring for
avian mortality
• Investigate toxin
pathways
• Confirm links between
botulism outbreaks and
environmental conditions
• Targeted benthic habitat
mapping

5. Beach Monitoring
3 study sites
monitored every 7-10 days , June-November
Door County
NWHC & Wisconsin DNR (2010),
AMBLE Volunteers (2011)
Eastern Upper Peninsula
Common Coast biologist
w/ support from Seney NWR
Sleeping Bear Dunes NL
Volunteers & park staff
Photo credit: Sharon Cobb
Jenny Chipault, USGS-NWHC (2012)

6. Bird Mortality Monitoring

7. Potential Pathways
Sediment
Sediment
D. Blehert, USGS (2008)

8. Where are some likely micro-habitats for C. botulinum?
Clostridium cells
and spores (<1
µm size)
At the base
of mussel
aggregates
Sediments below
where At the base of
any of these
pseudofeces mussel/Cladophora
materials
and organic aggregates
substrates
collect
Under mats of
sloughed
Cladophora
Sheridan Haack, USGS Michigan Water Science Center, 2012
Cladophora with marl deposits

9. Botulism outbreaks and environmental conditions
1. Water temperature + hydrodynamics
2. Mussel, round goby, invertebrate counts

10. 3. Transport of Cladophora, sediment, invertebrates

12. 4. Dissolved oxygen conditions

13. 4. Dissolved oxygen conditions

14. Benthic Habitat Mapping
• Highlights depositional
areas
– Cladophora Graveyard
– Sleeping Bear Point
• Anoxic Cladophora mats
documented in these
areas
Sleeping Bear Point, 65 ft, Oct 2011

16. Acknowledgements
UWM-Bootsma Lab National Park Service
Harvey Bootsma Brenda Moraska Lafrancois
Ben Turschak Alicia Higham
Erin Wilcox Dan Ray
Lisa DeGuire Chirs Otto
Sue Jennings
Emily Kobernik
Emma Kelly
Chris Johnson
Dave Schroeder

17. Growth Deposition Decay Re-suspension Deposition
growing conditions storms, seiche,
upwelling, turnover
currents currents, temp
bathymetry disturbance (D.O.)
Cladophora
grows
Cladophora Cladophora
sloughs and decays Nearshore
settles and/or offshore
Sediment, toxin toxin
Sediment, Sediment, food webs
C. botulinum, intoxicated
invertebrates C. botulinum, C. botulinum, invertebrates,
invertebrates invertebrates particles
toxin Birds
Fish
seasonal migration;
feeding habits
UWM, NPS, GLSC

18. BODM Distribution of anoxic areas
BGM
Air temperature Wind Sloughed Cladophora C. botulinum distribution
distribution
TPM
Water temperature Current Cladophora settling Toxin distribution
(velocity, direction)
CGM CDM
Nutrients Cladophora sloughing Carcass distribution
(P, N, O2)
Light Hydrodynamic model Cladophora growth
Bathymetry Cladophora maps
(Depth, lake level)
???
Loons
Dreissenid nutrient inputs
Fish
Pathogens
Lisa Fogarty and Riley

19. animated version low
lake levels
Dreissena Point Sources
Burial,
(now) (historically)
temp unburial
Cladophora
light storms, epiphyte deposits
substrate nutrients currents burden [ON SHORE]
high temps competition
epiphytes
invertebrates
mussels storms,
Cladophora Cladophora Cladophora
seiche
Biomass Peaks senesces sloughs & drifts toxin
epiphytes ↑ DOM ↑ epiphytes
invertebrates↑ Temps Hi Cladophora
invertebrates
Prod:Resp ↓
mussels
deposits
DO ↓ [IN LAKE]
toxin
epiphytes
toxin invertebrates
invasions
mussels Burial,
toxin unburial
Cladophora epiphytes Fish
re-growth invertebrates
mussels
Birds migration
Jun feeding habits
Jun-Jul
(Sep-Oct) Jul-Dec Jul-Dec
NPS (Oct)