When the community has information about local scientific studies, it is better for everyone, said one professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Nadine Folino-Rorem, professor of biology, investigated a freshwater jellyfish — Craspedacusta — that lives in Wolf Lake, which is located in the Hammond and Hegewisch communities on the Indiana-Illinois border. She received an Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant that helped look at the invasive jellyfish that originated in China.
The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Foundation helps fund programs that look at biology’s response to climate change and is focused on the southern Lake Michigan region, according to its website.
On March 4, Folino-Rorem is going to share her findings in a Zoom presentation with Calumet Revisited Forums, a program created by the Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative.
“The purpose is to make people aware of the fact that they have this invasive jellyfish,” Folino-Rorem said. “When people hear the word ‘invasive,’ they get kind of nervous, but it’s not always a harmful organism in the system.”
The study’s findings were published in 2024.
Folino-Rorem’s study looked at the biology of the freshwater jellyfish, allowing researchers to better predict its ecological impact in response to climate change.
In Wolf Lake, Folino-Rorem found the freshwater jellyfish in the polyp stage, which is its primary stage and present throughout the year. The polyp stage is a precursor to the medusa stage, Folino-Rorem said, when jellyfish are more visible.
Through the Indiana-Illinois Sea Grant, they had to determine where the jellyfish were found, which brought them to Wolf Lake.
Folino-Rorem believes that speaking at Calumet Revisited Forums will encourage people to keep an eye out for the freshwater jellyfish when they’re on Wolf Lake, she said.
“A lot of people don’t realize there are freshwater jellyfish,” Folino-Rorem said. “That makes it fun because there’s a little bit of charisma about this little beast, and then it gets people interested.”
If people find jellyfish at Wolf Lake, they could help aid Folino-Rorem in her study.
“If they’re out on that body of water, they might (see) the jellyfish versus another stage of the invasive hydrozoan and help us understand some of the dynamics of the life cycle from that stage,” Folino-Rorem said.
Emiliano Aguilar, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, was recently named head of an advisory committee to recruit future speakers for the forums.
As head of the advisory committee, Aguilar will look to find others to join and speakers that can be spotlighted during a discussion.
Since Aguilar is new to the role, he didn’t help pick Folino-Rorem as the March speaker, but he’s excited for her talk.
“I am very much looking forward to it,” he said. “I’m a historian, so I don’t think I’ve given a wealth of appreciation to the more STEM, scientific-focused material, so I’m excited to learn more.”
Calumet Revisited helps connect people who might not have crossed paths in their work, such as those who work at universities or in nonprofits, Aguilar said. He believes it can start more collaborations and discussions that can help Northwest Indiana.
Aguilar grew up in East Chicago and lived in the Whiting-Robertsdale community before moving to South Bend. He’s attended the Calumet Revisited series and has been interested in studies about the region.
Aguilar is working on a manuscript titled, “Build a Latino Machine: Caught Between Good Government Reform and Corrupt Political Machines,” which looks into how machine politics impacted East Chicago in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Calumet Revisited is an important program because it connects residents with stories that they otherwise might not have heard, such as Folino-Rorem’s study, Aguilar said.
“It’s all about reconnecting with the stories of so many things that have been done,” he said. “While there might have been residents that recognized how important they were in the moment, that sort of recognition has dulled over time.”
Those interested in tuning into the Zoom presentation should email [email protected] for a link.
