Protection and Restoration of Resources

The protection and restoration of resources theme supports research to protect, restore, or enhance priority coastal land and water habitats throughout the basin.

CILER has been providing GLRI support for projects funded under NOAA, which includes organizing and facilitating an external review of these projects, and organizing and leading workshops to improve information exchange and collaborations among GLRI and other researchers within the Great Lakes region.

One of the GLRI-supported projects involves identifying science-based environmental limits, or tipping points, that threaten Great Lakes ecosystems. The project uses existing Great Lakes water quality, biological monitoring, and land use data to do this. The ultimate goal is to institute land-use policies and restoration plans that ensure green infrastructure and habitat-sustaining ecosystems are maintained. Two tipping points models (land-use and estuary) have been compared and are being integrated that also incorporate bacterial contaminants as well. The Saginaw Bay ecosystem has been a test bed to evaluate Dreissena-, contaminants-, and nutrient input-driven tipping points.

View all Protection and Restoration of Resources research projects

Contact Us:

CILER
G110 Dana Building
440 Church Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1041
Phone: (734) 763-3010

Vision and Mission:

CILER's vision is to enhance the quality of the Great Lakes and its related ecosystem services, through a partnership of universities, NOAA scientists, and other stakeholders.

CILER's mission includes: 1) translating research into productive outcomes through outreach and education; 2) facilitating productive interactions between scientists in the Great Lakes basin, with a primary focus on NOAA partnerships; 3) identifying and characterizing emerging areas of concern for the Great Lakes ecosystem, with applications to all coastal ecosystems; 4) providing a forum for better linking ecosystem responses, sustainable ecosystem services, and decision-making, and; 5) advancing our understanding of, and ability to predict, complex ecosystem processes, responses, and dynamics.