Dr. Reavie directs NRRI’s Field Station in Ely, Minnesota. His research interests include limnology and paleolimnology of lakes and rivers, environmental indicator development using freshwater algae, and assessment of technologies for effective treatment of ballast water.
Recent studies include:
development of environmental quality indicators in North America’s Great Rivers using algal communities;
tracking long-term pollution trends using fossil remains in sedimentary profiles from northern Minnesota;
assessing the efficacy of potential ballast water treatments intended to prevent non-native species introductions to the Great Lakes; and,
long-term monitoring of Great Lakes phytoplankton responses to stressors, including nutrient enrichment and climate change.
Reavie ED, Jicha TM, Angradi TR, Bolgrien DW, Hill BH. 2010. Algal assemblages for large river monitoring: comparison among biovolume, absolute and relative abundance metrics. Ecological Indicators 10:167-177.
Reavie ED, Edlund MB. 2009. Diatoms as indicators of environmental change in rivers, fluvial lakes and impoundments. The diatoms: applications for the environmental and earth sciences 2nd edition
Niemi GJ, Brady VJ, Brown TN, Ciborowski JJH, Danz NP, Ghioca DM, Hanowski JM, Hollenhorst TP, Howe RW, Johnson LB, Johnston CA, Reavie ED. 2009. Development of ecological indicators for the U.S. Great Lakes coastal region – a summary of applications in Lake Huron. 12(1):1-13.
Finkel ZV, Vaillancourt CJ, Irwin AJ, Reavie ED, Smol JP. 2009. Environmental control of diatom community size structure varies across aquatic ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276:1627-1634.
Morrice JA, Danz NP, Regal RR, Kelly JR, Niemi GJ, Reavie ED, Hollenhorst TP, Axler RP, Trebitz AS, Cotter AM, Peterson GS. 2008. Human influences on water quality in Great Lakes wetlands. Environmental Management 41:347-357.
Reavie ED, Kireta AR, Kingston JC, Sgro GV, Danz NP, Axler RP, Hollenhorst TP. 2008. Comparison of simple and multimetric diatom-based indices for Great Lakes coastline disturbance. Journal of Phycology 44:787-802.
Assessing the Condition of Great Rivers using Benthic and Planktonic Algal Indicators The United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program has embarked on a comprehensive survey of Great Rivers in order to provide tools the states need to better manage and protect these important national resources. This survey will assess the health status of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers using indicators of water quality, sediments, algae, plants, insects, and fish. The Natural Resources Research Institute`s task in this project is to develop indicator tools from the algae, collected from hundreds of sites throughout the Great Rivers system. A variety of algal based tools will be developed for use by environmental managers and agencies.
Continued Research & Dev for Ballast Treatment 2008-09 The Great Ships Initiative (GSI) is a innovative collaboration whose objective is to end the problem of ship-mediated invasive species in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System, including through independent research and demonstration of environmental technology, financial incentives and consistent basin-wide harbor monitoring.
