UM, MSU to create center to study climate of Great Lakes

[marmar]

The University of Michigan and Michigan State University announced today a joint effort to study how climate change is affecting the Great Lakes.

Funded by a five-year, $4.2 million grant from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the universities will create the Great Lakes Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center.

The center will initially focus on the watersheds of Lake Erie and Lake Huron and how climate impacts agriculture, watershed management and tourism.

“Climate change is expected to dramatically impact the Great Lakes region,” said Donald Scavia, UM aquatic ecologist and co-leader of the center.

“Tourism and agriculture, in particular, are extremely vulnerable, and disruption to those sectors will have wide-ranging detrimental effects for an already struggling Great Lakes economy.”

Average temperatures in the Great Lakes region are projected to increase between 1.1 and 7.6 degrees by 2050, according to a climate assessment report from the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The center will study how climate change impacts the environment, society and the economy to develop climate adaptation planning initiatives.

The Great Lakes center is one of six new regional awards totaling $23.6 million announced Wednesday by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.


http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20100923/FREE/100929925