The Great Lakes are seeing dramatic shifts and losses in biodiversity that threaten ecosystem services in these inland seas of North America, which are under pressure from invasive species, climate change, nutrient pollution, hypoxia, and harmful algal blooms. The Great Lakes Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (GL-MBON) will assess biodiversity, habitat, and key ecosystem functions in the region to meet stakeholders’ information needs. The University of Michigan is partnering with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Oregon State University, and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission to assess habitat and biodiversity across a range of spatial and temporal scales. A key innovation of the GL-MBON will be integration across multiple technological approaches, from high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics to telemetry for fish populations to mapping large-scale biogeographic patterns measured by satellites. Working closely with the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS), data from those approaches will be integrated to maximize interoperability of information, links with existing repositories, and access to the information.

PI: Casey Godwin, University of Michigan

IRA Funded Marine Life award: $1.75M