Michigan Sea Grant Awarded

Michigan’s Sea Grant awarded the Lab a $150,000 two-year grant for the project “NOAA Sea Grant: Quantifying the Impacts of the Projected Climate Change on the Grand Traverse Bay Region.” This project is a two year Integrated Assessment (IA) of potential climate change impacts to the Grand Traverse Bay (GTB) and its watershed. The GTB regions water quality and economy–dependent on both tourism and recreation–are two areas in particular that the project will focus on. In fact, climate change has already been impacting the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed (GTBW). For example, regional warming over the last century has led to reduced lake ice and snowfall patterns, resulting in increasing trends in average river flows. Further changes may lead to decreased water levels, thus affecting tourism, recreation, and vegetation in the GTBW. The project will focus on how the GTBW and its communities can adapt to climate change as it continues, helping the region prepare and identify adaptive management strategies. Heading this project is PI David Hyndman in collaboration with MSU co-PIs Joan Rose, R. Jan Stevenson, Patricia Norris, Erin Sherry Martin, Anthony Kendall, and Erin Dreelin. Also collaborating on the project is The Watershed Center of Grand Traverse Bay (http://www.gtbay.org/).