Rice Creek Student Research Projects

Rice Creek is the subject of the Institute's first multidisciplinary research project.  Rice Creek is a local stream that hosts a population of brown trout, but is threatened by several human activities.  Students and faculty from several disciplines are working with residents to document the scope of the problems, and to find remedies.  By working jointly, students get to appreciate the scope of a real problem, and to make real contributions toward their resolution.

The issues surrounding Rice Creek include the following:

• controversy over sewage disposal
• lingering effects of a concentrated animal rearing facility
• dredging and straightening of the creek to drain wetlands

Student Projects: In the summer of 2000, six students participated in the project, working in the following areas:

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is used to delineate watersheds and wetlands for hydrologic studies, produce land use maps for planning purposes.
Hydrology and geochemistry are studied together in order to determine whether contaminants enter the stream with groundwater or surface runoff.
Invertebrate populations are used to assess the health of the creek.  The common insect larva that are important food for fish are rare or absent in the more degraded portions of the creek.
Microbiology is also used to assess the health of the creek.  Both traditional methods of growing cultures and modern PCR-based methods are used to identify bacteria in the creek's waters
Policy issues related to the project include permitting of the sewage project, Michigan Drain Code, regional planning, and regulation of large scale animal operations.

Next: Geographic Information Systems GIS