Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID IL_2025_Lamer

Harmonizing Environmental and Biological Monitoring Data to Understand Invasive Carp Dynamics and Ecosystem Response in the Upper Mississippi River Basin

Institute: Illinois
USGS Grant Number:
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-08-01 End Date: 2029-07-31
Total Federal Funds: $293,569 Total Non-Federal Funds: $343,422

Principal Investigators: James T. Lamer

Project Summary: This project will create a single, easy-to-use database that brings together many different types of environmental and fish monitoring data collected by universities, state and federal agencies, and other groups. These data will be derived from multiple sources, including river levels, water quality, weather, fish populations, and fish movement. Right now, these data are stored in many different formats and locations, making it difficult to use them together. Static, flat data files will be QA?d, filtered, formatted, and organized using reproducible data code and weather and hydrology data streams will be continuously scraped from web and API sources to answer important questions about invasive carp status, their population response to management efforts, and how they affect rivers and native fish. We will also build accessible tools to help scientists and managers use the data to evaluate management. Rapid data access enables adaptive and responsive management strategies.