Post submitted by Hanna Bates, Program Assistant at the Iowa Water Center
Slideshow of the Iowa Water Center Board visit to the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory.
This week, the Iowa Water Center Advisory Board held their bi-annual meeting at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory at Lake Okoboji in northwestern Iowa. The IWC advisory board started in 2006, and is made up of representatives from around the state (list of members provided below). This was the first meeting for several of our board members, so we covered IWC history to start off the meeting and spent time discussing current and upcoming IWC activities. Staff members and the advisory board also visited the research field sites for Elizabeth Swanner, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State University.
Swanner’s research is funded by the Iowa Water Center’s competitive annual seed grant program. This grant program funds one faculty member at an Iowa college as well as graduate students. Swanner’s project titled, “The role of iron mobility from anoxic sediments in stimulating harmful algal blooms,” received funding in 2016 and renewed funding for 2017. During the visit, Swanner described the project and demonstrated how samples are collected during a pontoon boat ride. Her research is focused on evaluating the potential that iron is released out of lake sediments, thus stimulating the blooming of toxic cyanobacteria in Iowa’s lakes during the summers. You can read more about her research here.
Follow her research on twitter at @betsyswanner.
The Iowa Water Center Board Members
- Larry Weber (Chair), Director of IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering, University of Iowa
- Marty Adkins, Asst. State Conservationist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Daryl Smith, Professor Emeritus of Biology at University of Northern Iowa
- Mary Skopec, Executive Director of Lakeside Laboratory
- Jon Nania, Supervisory Hydrologist at the Iowa Water Science Center at the USGS (replacing Kevin Richards as USGS Iowa Water Science Center representative)
- Jon Tack, Water Quality Bureau Chief at the Iowa DNR (replacing Bill Ehm as IDNR representative)
- Jake Hansen, Water Resources Bureau Chief at the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (replacing Jim Gillespie as IDALS representative)
- John Lawrence, Iowa State University Interim Vice President for Extension and Outreach
- James Reecy, Professor in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University (replacing Wolfgang Kliemann as ISU Vice President for Research representative)
We’d like to extend a special thank you to Mary Skopec for making the arrangements for our meeting at Lakeside Lab. We highly recommend trekking to Okoboji for a tour of the campus or to take one of Lakeside’s academic courses. Lakeside does a variety of outreach, too – so bring the entire family!
