Mount Pleasant, MI — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded grants to Central Michigan University and Clarkson University to continue monitoring coastal wetlands and fish contaminants throughout the Great Lakes basin. Central Michigan will receive $10 million to monitor approximately 1,000 wetlands. The money will help the school monitor the health and trends in plant, invertebrate, amphibian, fish, and bird communities as well as water quality. Clarkson in Potsdam, New York, will get about $6 million to monitor contaminants in top predator fish in the Great Lakes. The research will evaluate trends in contaminant concentrations in fish and assess changes in contaminant transfer through the food web.