Immersed
immersed in research and teaching
From an island to landlocked DC, Dr. Doug Kane continues to study the Lake Erie watershed by Kathy Punches, Director of Public Relations and Marketing
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help or hurt water quality. His research began at Stone Lab, Ohio State University’s Lake Erie campus on Gibraltar Island, and has now expanded to the watershed areas of the Sandusky and Maumee rivers. “You really have to look back at what’s coming into the lake from upstream, and now I’m upstream and that’s one of the reasons I’m here,” he says. Kane also appreciates the small college environment where he can continue his
Photo by Jenny Derringer
eeing someone who has spent much of his undergraduate and graduate education years conducting research on a small island in Lake Erie, one is quick to wonder what drew Dr. Douglas Kane to landlocked Defiance. Surprisingly, the answer is location. Defiance lies within the Lake Erie watershed and embraces the Maumee River, which
flows into the lake. “My research has mainly been on – I could describe it as water quality, but it’s a little broader than that – biotic integrity,” says Kane, assistant professor of biology since fall of 2007. He describes biotic integrity as those practices that help or hurt the environment, and for his research, specifically water quality including chemical water quality, nutrients levels in the water, physical water quality, and water temperature. He examines organisms that
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