Harvey Bootsma has spent more than 20 years studying the depths and complexities of Lake Michigan’s ecosystems. But the ripples of that work started halfway across the globe.
In the early 1990s, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in marine biology, Bootsma accepted a job as the first director of Lake Malawi National Park. The job was based in the southern African country of Malawi and paid just $300 a month.
“I had just gotten married, and my wife and I went there for two years, where I was in charge of this park,” said Bootsma, who is originally from Canada. “I was 24 when I started that. I really didn’t know what I was doing, but I learned a lot.”
In the decades since, Bootsma has leveraged his knowledge of lake ecosystems to probe the complexities of Lake Michigan.
As associate dean, he’s also helped build the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences, which launched its first graduate program in 2009 and its undergraduate major in 2021. The school’s faculty and alumni help inform policy, improve water management and promote the health and sustainability of freshwater systems worldwide.
From Lake Malawi to Lake Michigan
Back in Malawi, that first job immersed Bootsma in a national park dedicated to the third deepest lake in the world. More than 2,000 feet deep, Lake Malawi also claims more species of fish than any other lake on Earth. Most are found only in that lake.
The opportunity directed his career and life work toward limnology, or the study of inland lakes and waters. “Lake Malawi is still my first love,” Bootsma said. “It was the pivotal point in my career.” He became enamored with the intricacies of the inland lake environment and how it can be viewed from different perspectives, from biology and chemistry to physics.
The Malawi experience inspired Bootsma to return to North America for graduate school, but he continued to return to Malawi for his doctoral research. He was working in Malawi in 1999 when he found a job at UWM’s Great Lakes WATER Institute, a research center that has since blossomed into the School of Freshwater Sciences.
Probing freshwater ecosystems
As a professor at the School of Freshwater Sciences, Bootsma is involved in a wide range of research, from climate change to the impact of invasive species. He also studies microplastics, synthetic chemicals and other substances with potential consequences for human health.
With invasive species, like the quagga mussel, Bootsma and his students are working to lessen their impact. One effort involves lining the bottom of the lake with tarps in shallow water to remove the invasive mussels. In deeper waters, the operators deploy a device called a mussel masher — a heavy plate that they drag across the bottom to crush the mussels.
Bootsma also works with colleagues in the school to deploy and oversee many instruments that collect and report vital data about Lake Michigan in real-time, via platforms like The Great Lakes Observing System. These reports on variables like water temperature and wave conditions support anglers seeking fish, commercial ships navigating safe passage to ports and other fundamental daily operations on Lake Michigan.
In all of his work, Bootsma is connected to Lake Michigan and the people who live and work on it. That gives him satisfaction. But his greatest joys are the research dives that give him insight into the highs and lows of one of the world’s great freshwater bodies.
“My best days on the job have been out working on the lake,” he said.
