Marshall Helmberger
REGIONAL Researchers from the Natural Resources Research Institute were on Lake Vermilion this week as they work to refine a high-tech testing method that could eventually make the hunt for aquatic invasive species, or AIS, far more efficient and effective. They’re getting logistical help with the project from the Vermilion Lake Association, which has long played a major role in heading off AIS on the lake.
“Everything that lives in the lake releases some DNA,” said Josh Dumke, a senior research scientist at the NRRI, which is affiliated with the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Whether plant or animal, tissue cells containing DNA are regularly sloughed off into the water, Dumke said, either through skin cells, mucous, or urine. That means, in theory, that water samples from a lake could eventually help researchers detect the presence of AIS far more effectively than current methods, particularly on large lakes like Vermilion.