Unified Interior Regions
Region 3: Great Lakes
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
For more information on the Great Lakes and work being done, check out the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative website here!
GLRIUSGS Science Centers in the Great Lakes Region
For more information on what each center is doing in the Great Lakes, please follow the links below!
Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center
Upper Midwest Water Science Center
Regions L2 Landing Page Tabs
Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives
Previous work performed as part of the USGS Holocene Synthesis project illuminated complex centennial-scale patterns of drought and wetter-than-average conditions across the North American continent interior during the past two millennia, where paleorecord data coverage is sparse. In order to explain the patterns of naturally-occurring drought, floods, and storms for the past, identified by...
Headquarters - Ann Arbor, MI
The USGS Great Lakes Science Center is dedicated to providing scientific information for restoring, enhancing, managing and protecting living resources and their habitats in the Great Lakes region. The USGS Great Lakes Science Center is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and has biological stations and research vessels located across the Great Lakes Basin
Mapping Application for the Lower Maumee River (MALMR)
The Mapping Application for the Lower Maumee River (MALMR) is intended to support science-based decision making regarding habitat restoration at various scales in the lower Maumee River and surrounding region.
Data for Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Near Lemont, IL
Approved Mean Annual Discharge
The stream flow monitoring station on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Lemont, Illinois has been in operation since December 7, 2004. The site is operated in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District, Chicago, Illinois.
Link to Approved Mean Annual Discharge...
Illinois Water Conditions Summary Table
A water conditions summary table that includes historical and current river stage data and combines National Weather Service forecast river stages for stream-monitoring sites in Illinois is available. The table is updated every 30 minutes and the stream-monitoring sites are operated by various agencies. River stages above flood stage are shown in red to help monitor flooding conditions. ...
Development and application of a robot-assisted computer vision system to map Great Lakes bottom habitats and biology
Lake bottom environments are critical zones of interface between geology and biological processes that support health ecosystems and human well-being. Over the past thirty years, Great Lake food webs have become dominated by bottom dwelling invasive species and nuisance algae, that are poorly mapped and understood. USGS is developing a suite of new technologies to map habitat, invasive...
Research and Investigations
The USGS Central Midwest Water Science Center (CMWSC) is comprised of water science offices in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.
The MOWSC conducts research and monitoring on a wide variety of hydrologicial issues affecting steams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater in our three states and across the Nation.
Michigan Bacteriological Research Laboratory
Microbiologists at the Michigan Bacteriological Research Laboratory (MI-BaRL) use a wide array of traditional and modern molecular approaches to evaluate microbial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance pathways in the environment.
Pathology — Madison, Wisconsin
About the Capability
The Environmental Health Program collaborates with the pathology section of the Necropsy and Pathology Diagnostic Laboratory at the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) to advance an understanding of the effects of contaminant and pathogen exposure on wildlife.
Molecular Characterization of Novel Fish Viruses from Technical Assistance Cases
Viruses occur in many cultured and wild stocks of fish. William Batts collaborates with many government, state, tribal, and private research and diagnostic laboratories to aid in identification of these unknown replicating agents of uncertain pathogenicity. Typically, viruses can be replicated in a variety of fish cell lines and investigated at several temperatures to see if the cytopathic...
Real-Time Precipitation Data - CMWSC
Real-time precipitation data is available in our map-driven application for the Central Midwest Water Science Center. You can use a map to select a precipitation-monitoring site and view precipitation amounts for the previous 3,6,12,24,48 hours and 7,14, and 30 days. A data table shows precipitation amounts at all sites within that state.
Fish Telemetry
To monitor fish movement in selected rivers, the USGS has installed near real-time receivers for fish tags. These receivers detect the presence of acoustic tags that have been surgically implanted into a variety of fish species. The tag detection data can provide information about how far fish are moving in a river system, changes in fish population distribution, and, when viewed with flow and...
50 frame 3D reconstruction
Digital 3D reconstruction of lake bottom using 50 photo frames taken by the dive camera system. This example shows an arc since the sampling transect is a circle. This reconstruction allows us to gain more insight about the lake bottom since elevation has been added to the photographs.
Bank erosion along an upstream reach of the Kinnickinnic River
Bank erosion along an upstream reach of the Kinnickinnic River, October 2018.
Lake Michigan lake bottom and the corner of a pivot point
Lake Michigan lake-bottom near South Manitou Island. Visible is part of a diver's hand and the corner of a anchor point used for circular transects.
Deploying Underwater Camera in Lake Michigan
USGS personnel: Sam Pecoraro (left), Tanner Kenney (middle), and Scott Dwyer (right; in the water) deploying an underwater camera in Lake Michigan near South Manitou Island.
A center pivot is used for circular transects
A diver is holding onto a pole which is used as a pivot point. A line can be seen that a diver attachs to a camera for running circular transects. Image taken in Lake Michigan near South Manitou Island.
US Congressman Dan Kildee with GLSC employees next to R/V Arcticus
US Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05), third from left, and his Senior Legislative Assistant Jordan Dickinson, third from right, visit the science and vessel crew of the USGS research vessel Arcticus. Jill Wingifield of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, second from right, also joined the two-hour cruise.
US Congressman Dan Kildee with USGS personnel aboard the R/V Arcticus
US Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) and his Senior Legislative Assistant Jordan Dickinson experience Great Lakes fisheries research first hand aboard the USGS research vessel Arcticus.
Diver's view of underwater camera in Lake Michigan
Robotic System
Playing with a Crayfish Before Sampling
Close up of crayfish next to center pivot. When crayfish swims away, then a diver can be seen next to the center pivot attaching the line for the dive camera transects.
Two single-frequency ADVMs mounted to Durand bridge
Two single-frequency ADVMs mounted to Durand bridge.
Maumee River Watershed
The Maumee River Watershed with Areas of Concern
Algal sampling after removal of subsample
Close-up view of defined area of a rock cobble (middle) where attached algae and other material were removed with a brush. Rocks from multiple locations at a site are composited into a single sample representing the stream site.
A new partnership will provide a clearer picture of the benefits of farmers' conservation practices on the quality of our Nation's water. Working together, USDA's NRCS and DOI's USGS will quantify the benefits of voluntary agricultural practices at a watershed scale.
Newly released US Topo maps for Michigan now feature segments of the North Country National Scenic Trail. Several of the 1,290 new US Topo quadrangles for the state now display parts of the Trail along with other improved data layers.
A significant number of urban water wells in Minnesota — over a third of those studied — contain chemicals from consumer and industrial products, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report.
On the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today released a new report showing that forests, wetlands and farms in the eastern United States naturally store 300 million tons of carbon a year (1,100 million tons of CO2 equivalent).
U.S. Geological Survey field crews are measuring significant flooding on the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota.
U.S. Geological Survey field crews are measuring flooding on the Big Sioux River and its tributaries in South Dakota.
Methylmercury contamination is decreasing in some lakes in northern Minnesota as a result of reduced mercury pollution, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study published today.
Scientists have extracted DNA from fish eggs found in northern sections of the Upper Mississippi River and have determined that the eggs and larvae are not from Asian carp.
Want to know how elevation will benefit your state? The USGS National Geospatial Program is advancing the 3D Elevation Program, known as 3DEP, in response to the growing need for high-quality three-dimensional representations of the Nation’s natural and constructed features.
Stronger storms, rising seas, and flooding are placing hundreds of millions people at risk around the world, and big part of the solution to decrease those risks is just off shore. A new study finds that coral reefs reduce the wave energy that would otherwise impact coastlines by 97 percent.
Great Lakes fish in the salmon family that rely on the fish “alewife” as part of their diet face a major obstacle in restoring naturally reproducing populations, according to new U.S. Geological Survey research published in the journal Fish and Shellfish Immunology.
A new flood warning system is available to help Licking County, Ohio, better prepare and plan for floods.
Contacts
Locations
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Middleton, Wis., Office
Phone: 608-828-9901
Fax: 608-821-3817
Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center
Kentucky - Louisville Office
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: (502) 493-1900
Fax: (502) 493-1909
Kentucky - Williamsburg Field Office
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: (606) 549-2406
Fax: (606) 549-5400
Kentucky - Murray Field Office
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: (270) 759-2460
Fax: (270) 649-2461
Great Lakes Science Center
Phone: 734-994-3331
Fax: 734-994-8780
Illinois Water Science Center
Phone: 217-328-8747
Fax: 217-328-9770
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Phone: (608) 783-6451
Indiana - Indianapolis Office
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: (317) 290-3333
Fax: (317) 290-3313
Kentucky Water Science Center
Phone: (502) 493-1900
Fax: (502) 493-1909
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Lansing, Mich., Office
Phone: 517-887-8903
Fax: 517-887-8937
National Wildlife Health Center
Phone: 608-270-2400
Fax: 608-270-2415
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Mounds View, Minn., Office
Phone: 763-783-3100
Fax: 763-783-3103
Ohio - Columbus Office
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: 614-430-7700
Fax: 614-430-7777
Ohio - Ohio Water Microbiology Laboratory (OWML)
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: 614-430-7700
Fax: 614-430-7777
Laboratory for Infectious Disease and the Environment
Phone: 715-384-9673
Fax: 715-384-9157
Michigan Bacteriological Research Laboratory (MI-BaRL)
Phone: 517-887-8903
Fax: 517-887-8937
Mercury Research Laboratory
mercury@usgs.gov
Phone: 608-828-9901
Fax: 608-821-3817
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Grand Rapids, Minn., Field Office
Phone: 218-326-1297
Fax: 218-327-2557
Cheboygan Vessel Base
jbergan@usgs.gov
Phone: 231-627-4571
Fax: 231-627-8791
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Rhinelander, Wis., Field Office
Phone: 715-362-7476
Fax: 715-362-7479
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Rice Lake, Wis., Field Office
Phone: 715-234-4015
Fax: 715-234-4550
Wisconsin Water Science Center - Southwest Field Office (Middleton)
Phone: 608-827-6255
Fax: 608-827-0851
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Gladstone, Mich., Field Office
Phone: (906) 428-5800
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Grayling, Mich., Field Office
Phone: 989-348-8291
Fax: 989-348-6866
Ohio - New Philadelphia Field Office
mgriffin@usgs.gov
Phone: 330-343-2343
Fax: 330-364-8095
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Lansing, Mich., Field Office
Phone: 517-887-8903
Fax: 517-887-8937
Southern Illinois Field Office - Mt. Vernon
Phone: 618-242-4495
Fax: 618-242-4578
Northern Illinois Field Office - DeKalb
Phone: 815-756-9207
Fax: 815-756-9214
Hammond Bay Biological Station
michaelhansen@usgs.gov
Phone: 989-734-4768
Fax: 989-734-4494
Lake Erie Biological Station
rkraus@usgs.gov
Phone: 419-625-1976
Fax: 419-625-7164
Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station
Phone: 219-926--8336
Fax: 219-929-5792
Lake Superior Biological Station
mvinson@usgs.gov
Phone: 715-682-6163
Fax: 715-682-6511
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Milwaukee, Wis., Project Office
Phone: 414-962-2582
Upper Midwest Water Science Center - Green Bay, Wis., Project Office
Phone: 920-655-0273