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Program Information:
What are the threats to the Upper Mississippi River, and how does research contribute to a healthy river system?

Learn how the UW La Crosse River Studies Center contributes scientific research to river management and how federal funding losses for Mississippi River study may impact its future.

The program will include the status of short and long-term research on the river, threats to that research, the role of the UW River Studies research vessel, and coordination with other agencies studying and protecting the river.

Speaker Information:
Dr. Eric Strauss is a professor in the Department of Biology at UWL and the Director of the River Studies Center. He teaches several courses in the fields of limnology, water quality, ecology, and general biology. He leads an undergraduate and graduate research program examining nutrient cycling and other ecosystem processes in stream and river systems.

Prior to UWL, he spent two years as an assistant professor at Fort Hays State University and several years as a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse. With the U.S. Geological Survey, he collaborated with other scientists to determine spatial and temporal patterns of nitrogen cycling in the Upper Mississippi River and to estimate the effects of these processes on nitrate and total nitrogen load and export in the Mississippi River.

His education includes a B.S. in Fisheries Biology and a M.S. in Biology (Dr. Walter Dodds, advisor) from Kansas State University. He also holds a Ph.D. in Biology (Dr. Gary Lamberti, advisor) from the University of Notre Dame where he studied the interactive effects of chemical/biological factors on nitrogen cycling in stream ecosystems.