1995 December/January
1. Trace-metal Chemistry Cleans Up
2. Another Goby Found in Duluth-Superior Harbor
4. Readers Rate the 'Drift
Sea Grant/Great Lakes Research Voted Top Subjects
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Trace-metal Chemistry Cleans Up
Tucked away on the lower level of the UW-Madison Water Science and Engineering Lab is a room only a mother or a trace-metal chemist could love.
You can't enter unless you're wearing a clean, hooded jumpsuit. Intruding dust specks are captured by an air circulation system that filters the room's air five times every two minutes, removing every particle larger than 0.2 microns in diameter. Metal objects and surfaces have been eliminated or covered with Teflon to reduce the potentially contaminating effect of oxidation.
This aptly named "clean room" is helping revolutionize the field of trace-metal chemistry, according to UW-Madison research chemist Martin Shafer, who helped design and build the facility 18 months ago. The clean room was built with grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state of Wisconsin, and the UW Sea Grant Institute.
The UW clean room is one of only a handful in the country, and "you really cannot do trace-metal chemistry these days without it," Shafer said, explaining that todayÕs precise instrumentation allows trace-metal measurements into the range of parts per trillion. At such low concentrations, measurements can be easily perturbed by the least bit of contamination.
"Without the clean room and other clean technologies, it's very difficult to investigate trace-metals like lead, cadmium, copper, zinc or mercury in the Great Lakes or tributaries to the Great Lakes," said David Armstrong, coordinator of UW Sea Grant's Microcontaminants & Water Quality subprogram. "This facility allows us to do state-of- the-art research on the sources and fates of these substances."
Thanks to the clean room and other "clean" water sampling techniques, much of the data produced by "pre-clean" techniques are now obsolete, Shafer said.
"It's only been in the last five or six years that reliable trace-metal measurements have been made in freshwater systems," he said. "All data prior to, say, 1980 are suspect. We've done side-by-side comparisons with classic versus clean techniques, and the differences are amazing."
The repercussions are important outside the lab as well. Inaccurate trace-metal data could lead to the formulation of inappropriate Great Lakes discharge and pollution policies that regulate potentially harmful metals such as cadmium and mercury.
Taking full advantage of the new facility, Shafer and others are developing a more accurate database of trace-metals in surface waters throughout the state. Armstrong is using the room in a Sea Grant-funded project that looks at contaminant movement throughout Lake Michigan.
Shafer is also working with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources limnologist Jim Hurley and the State Laboratory of HygieneÕs William Sonzogni on a Lake Michigan-wide mass balance study. The researchers are using clean techniques to conduct the first comprehensive study of tributary inputs of trace metals to the lake, and are working with other groups to build a model of all the inputs and outputs of trace metals and organic contaminants to and from the lake.
- Laurence Wiland
Another Goby Found in Duluth-Superior Harbor
A second round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) has been found in Duluth-Superior harbor, suggesting that the western Lake Superior harbor may be home to a reproducing population of the exotic fish.
The four-inch goby was found Nov. 7 by a National Biological Service (NBS) research crew. The NBS crew was trawling for Eurasian ruffe, another exotic fish, for a collaborative project with Minnesota Sea Grant and the University of Minnesota. The first goby found in Lake Superior was discovered by an NBS crew in July 1995.
"The second sighting suggests there is a small adult population of round gobies in the Duluth-Superior harbor," said Jim Selgeby, director of the NBS Laboratory in Ashland, Wis. "Although no young gobies have been found yet, this adult population is capable of reproducing. I expect weÕll find more next year."
Like the zebra mussel and ruffe, the round goby is native to the Black and Caspian seas. Round gobies were first discovered in North America in 1990 with their cousin the tubenose goby in the St. Clair River near Detroit. The tubenose goby did not thrive, but the round goby quickly spread into Lakes Erie and Michigan, where the largest infestations are now found.
Round gobies already are causing problems for other bottom-dwelling Great Lakes natives like sculpins and darters. Gobies eat fish eggs, take over habitat, spawn multiple times a season, and tolerate poor water quality.
Anglers who catch a goby should contact Sea Grant Advisory Services, UW-Green Bay, (414) 465-2795; the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Fishery Resource office in Ashland, (715) 682-6185, or a local Wisconsin DNR office.
Round goby fact sheets and wallet-sized goby identification cards will be available soon from UW Sea Grant.
- Laurence Wiland
Nearly 50 Madison-area elementary- and middle-school teachers braved sub-zero temperatures Dec. 9 to gather at UW-Madison to start preparing for an upcoming trip to Florida.
Not an actual trip, but a "virtual trip" they will take with their students in April via the JASON Project.
The JASON Project is an international science and technology program created to involve students from many disciplines in the work of professional scientists. The JASON Project theme for the 1995-96 school year is Adapting to a Changing Sea. Researchers will study crocodiles, alligators, fish, sharks, marine habitat and sediment movement in Southern Florida.
Over the next four months, students will participate in a JASON companion curriculum endorsed by the National Science Teachers Association. Students will also take an aquatic field trip to a local wetland to gather data, which they will then share and compare with other students internationally via the Internet.
" By April, students will be ready for their Everglades "visit" -- a real-time video and audio transmission connecting students with scientists conducting research in the Everglades.
The JASON project has been available to Milwaukee students for several years. Responding to Madison-area teacher interest, UW Sea Grant recently arranged to host a network JASON site in Madison.
"One of the strengths of the JASON Project is that it can bring science and research to teachers throughout the state," said Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Education Outreach Coordinator Al Stenstrup, who led the Madison session. "It also brings a level of excitement to students, and hopefully they will relate that to their own local environment."
For those with World Wide Web access, a full description of the national JASON Project is available at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/scripts/JASON.html.
- Laurence Wiland
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