Project overview
Manoomin (Ojibwe), also known as Psiη (Dakota) or Wild Rice, is a beloved, spiritually and culturally important plant species that grows in shallow lake beds and throughout the Great Lakes Region. It is crucial to protect this being, both to honor treaty rights and to repair and strengthen relationships between tribes and academic research institutions. Manoomin is under threat from climate change as well as the impacts of land use change. Our tribal partners have expressed interest in a “snapshot” study of current Manoomin Health to determine present threats and provide evidence supporting effective management practices.
The goal of this study is to work in collaboration with tribes to constrain which water quality parameters are impacting Manoomin health. We will accomplish this by joining together traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and academic research methods to compare three groupings of ricing lakes:
Healthy stands of Manoomin that have been previously identified by harvesters as having a history of productivity and good health.
Declining rice stands, that were harvestable in the recent past but have seen a decline in health and productivity and will soon not be harvestable.
Lakes that are no longer harvestable, but were known to have had Manoomin in the past. Comparing these groups will illustrate what water chemistry healthy ricing lakes have in common in contrast with those in decline.
To determine which biogeochemical conditions are most closely correlated with Manoomin health, and identify those conditions that are causing declining health, we will conduct biogeochemical analyses of environmental health. This will require sampling of surface, ground, and pore waters to measure pesticide and nutrient anion concentrations; and coring for sediment samples to determine substrate chemistry and mineralogy. Analysis of these results will help us determine what management is needed to protect Manoomin for the future.