A former University of California researcher and professor lured to the University of Michigan by the prospect of creating his dream project is behind the "Flume Room", a series of 150 mini Huron Rivers located at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The Flume Room, a step up from a project run by Bradley Cardinale at U-C, is designed to determine what the most serious stressors are on rivers and streams. Cardinale, an assistant professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and principal investigator of the flume project, relocated to U-M in January 2011 with the promise that the indoor controlled water quality studies could be done in a larger, more controlled, more meaningful environment. "I'm very happy U-M gave us the money to do this," he says. "At the University of California, it was nothing like this…There were some shortcomings, some cut corners in terms of having a facility that was controlled." "The benefits for the University of Michigan is it wants to become experts on water sustainability. Water is going to be one of the single biggest bottlenecks facing humanity in the next century…We're sitting right here on the Great Lakes. Michigan wants to be a leader in preserving water and maintaining the quality of of water. Aside from that, the research brings in top dollars," he says. Immediately after the flume room was constructed, he says, the National Science Foundation awarded the project a $2 million grant. Each of the artificial streams in the "one-of-kind-facility is completely enclosed and re-circulating, which makes it possible to examine how each form of environmental stress impacts the production of oxygen, the removal of pollutants from water, and the decomposition and recycling of wastes in a closed system. The flumes run around the clock every day and water temperature is maintained at 65 degrees Fahrenheit to simulate fall temperatures in the Huron. What sets the research apart from other studies, he says, is the capability to subject 150 bodies of water to various variables - erosion, chemical pollution, invasive species, etc. all at once and in a controlled environment 150 times. It's what's called high replication. "The problem is so far we study the heck out of this,but we're comparing apples to oranges," says Cardinale, who is also an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Within about four months, he says, he expects to be able to rank the top concerns for the Huron River. The next step, he says, is to "get into nature into the real steams and see if we get the same answers." In one to two years, if there is agreement between the lab and the field, he says the top 4-5 stressors on the Great Lakes watershed in Michigan could be identified. Source: Bradley Cardinale, principal investigator, the Flume Room at University of Michigan Writer: Kim North Shine
