PELLSTON, Mich. — Since 1909, researchers and students at the University of Michigan Biological Station have been looking beyond the surface of forests, lakes and rivers to think about ecosystems, sustainability and the incredible connections we have with organisms notches lower on the food chain.
To educate the community about the biodiversity in their own backyard and inspire neighbors on their journey through the natural world, UMBS created a field guide to serve as a reference to help identify the aquatic wildlife and shoreline species in and along Douglas Lake.
The field guide was informed by UMBS scientific experts, visiting researchers and private local citizens during a BioBlitz that tallied the living things that call this part of northern Michigan home.
“The diversity of species is spectacular — from mudpuppies to dragonflies to tiny fungi,” said Dr. Aimée Classen, director of the U-M Biological Station. “Thank you to each and every person around Douglas Lake who made it possible for us to develop a field guide that will serve as a community resource — one which we will build upon and update in the coming years as we monitor the effects of global environmental changes.”
Volunteers in the three-day UMBS BioBlitz in July 2023 logged a total of 509 species.
Sally Butler, who has lived on Douglas Lake for 69 summers, volunteered as a citizen-scientist during the BioBlitz and calls UMBS “the greatest asset on the lake.”
Butler’s family has been here for 114 years, nearly as long as UMBS. She said her great step-grandparents first came from Indiana to the lake in 1910 and camped for a couple of summers. They later bought a cottage on the north shore.
“Driving a pontoon-load of herpetologists around during the BioBlitz was an absolute blast,” Butler said. “Knowing that UMBS is doing research to sustain biodiversity on our lake and beyond is a true comfort to me, and I so appreciate them including lake residents in many of their educational programs.”
About 35% of the species logged during the BioBlitz were plants, about 35% were insects and about 7% were fungi. Birds, mammals, amphibians, mollusks, diatoms and fish comprised the other 23%.
Some of the most observed species were Siberian Water Milfoil (31 observations), Swamp Milkweed (15), Yellow Perch (8) and the Common Loon (14).
The work was done by 60 observers, and their numerous team members, who made a total of 1,644 observations.
They found everything from smallmouth bass, Caspian terns and algae to water lilies, snakes and bald eagles. Volunteers also logged beavers, beetles, mudpuppies, muskrats and dragonflies.
The new field guide breaks down the top species in seven categories:
- Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles
- Fish
- Fungi and Lichens
- Aquatic Plants
- Birds
- Wetland Plants
- Upland Plants
The Little Traverse Bay Band’s Gijigowi Anishinaabemowin Language Department provided Anishinaabemowin translations.
Top species, not all, found during the BioBlitz are included in the field guide.
iNaturalist was used to catalog species during the BioBlitz. Click here to see all species observed during the event.
Go to the UMBS Field Guide website to view and download the field guide.
Founded in 1909, the U-M Biological Station is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations. For 116 years, students, faculty and researchers from around the globe have studied and monitored the impact of environmental changes on northern Michigan ecosystems.
The core mission of the Biological Station is to advance environmental field research, engage students in scientific discovery and provide information needed to understand and sustain ecosystems from local to global scales. In this cross-disciplinary, interactive community, students, faculty and researchers from around the globe come together to learn about and from the natural world and seek solutions to the critical environmental challenges of our time.
RELATED STORY:
