The Changing Environment of Northern Michigan

A Century of Science and Nature at the University of Michigan Biological Station

Subjects: Michigan and the Great Lakes, Nature, Ann Arbor/University of Michigan
Ebook : 9780472124732, 224 pages, 177 Color and B&W photographs with numerous tables and charts, 7 x 10, November 2021
Paperback : 9780472050758, 224 pages, 177 Color and B&W photographs with numerous tables and charts, 7 x 10, December 2009
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One hundred years of scientific study of wildlife and environmental change at the University of Michigan Biological Station

Look Inside

Copyright © 2009, University of Michigan. All rights reserved.

Media Kit

  • Knute J. Nadelhoffer Photo .jpg
  • Alan J. Hogg, Jr. Photo .jpg
  • Brian A. Hazlett Photo .jpg
  • Photo 1 .jpg. The first ornithology class in 1909. Courtesy University of Michigan Biological Station.
  • Photo 2 .jpg. Old-growth stand of red pine in the Pellston Plain. Understory trees of eastern white pine will eventually replace the overstory red pines if wildfire is absent or rare over the next 100-150 years. Courtesy Burton V. Barnes.
  • Photo 3 .jpg. Seedlings of northern red oak are common in the ground-cover layer of the high-elevation, dry, outwash-lake plain forests. They rarely are recruited into the understory layer because of severe deer browsing, exacerbated by slow growth due to soil-water stress. Courtesy Burton V. Barnes.
  • Photo 4 .jpg. Douglas Lake watersheds. Courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.
  • Photo 5 .jpg. A swamp. Courtesy Robert Pillsbury.
  • Photo 6 .jpg. A temporary pool. Courtesy Robert Pillsbury.
  • Photo 7 .jpg. Canada or velvet-leaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides). Courtesy Edward G. Voss.
  • Photo 8 .jpg. Dwarf lake iris (Iris lacustris). Courtesy Edward G. Voss.
  • Photo 9 .jpg. Dwarf lake iris (Iris lacustris). Sulfur shelf or chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus). Courtesy Marilynn Smith.
  • Photo 10 .jpg. Nymphaea odorata subsp. tuberosa. Courtesy Mary H. Sexton.
  • Photo 11 .jpg. Cladonia cristatella, commonly known as British soldiers because of the red apothecia, which resemble the red hats of British troops during the American Revolutionary War. This fruticose species is a few inches tall, and is found throughout the state but is abundant in the Lower Peninsula. Courtesy Patricia L. Hinds.
  • Photo 12 .jpg. Porcupine. Courtesy Philip Myers.
  • Photo 13 .jpg. Five-Lined skink, Eumeces fasciata. Courtesy Scott Smith.
  • Photo 14 .jpg. A cluster of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha. Courtesy Kimberly S. Cerrudo.
  • Photo 15 .jpg. Purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria. Courtesy Kimberly S. Cerrudo. 
  • Author Biographies .doc
  • Hi-Res Cover .jpg
  • Press Release .doc

Description

Northern Michigan is undergoing unprecedented changes in land use, climate, resource extraction, and species distributions. For the last hundred years, the University of Michigan Biological Station has monitored these environmental transformations. Stretching 10,000 acres along Burt and Douglas Lakes in the northern Lower Peninsula and 3,200 acres on Sugar Island near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the station has played host to nearly 10,000 students and a steady stream of top scientists in the fields of biology, ecology, geology, archeology, and climatology.

The Changing Environment of Northern Michigan collects essays by some of these scientists, who lead readers on virtual field trips exploring the history of people and science at the station itself, the relations of indigenous people to the land, the geophysical history of the region, characteristics of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, key groups of organisms and their relations to local habitats, and perspectives on critical environmental challenges of today and their effects on the region. Accompanying the chapters are color illustrations and photographs that bring the station's pristine setting to life.

Like the station itself, the book provides a solid background for better appreciating the relationships among living and nonliving parts of northern Michigan, for anyone interested in exploring the region's forests, fields, and wetlands; wading or paddling down its rivers; or swimming or floating across its lakes.

Knute J. Nadelhoffer is Director of the University of Michigan Biological Station and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan.

Alan J. Hogg, Jr., teaches science writing at the University of Michigan as a faculty member of the Sweetland Writing Center. His Ph.D. research explored the effects of ozone and nitrogen oxides on University of Michigan Biological Station forests.

Brian A. Hazlett is Professor Emeritus of Zoology at the University of Michigan.

Knute J. Nadelhofferis Director of the University of Michigan Biological Station and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan.

Alan J. Hogg, Jr., teaches science writing at the University of Michigan as a faculty member of the Sweetland Writing Center. His Ph.D. research explored the effects of ozone and nitrogen oxides on University of Michigan Biological Station forests.

Brian A. Hazlettis Professor Emeritus of Zoology at the University of Michigan.

Listen: Q&A with Nadelhoffer | WEMU | 1/14/2010