A Greener Lake Erie
Ann Arbor, MI — Recent research shows that Lake Erie is becoming choked with organisms associated with phosphorus coming from the watershed or being excreted by invasive zebra mussels.
Combining the results of a seven year (1996-2002), lake-wide study of the base of Lake Erie's food web with historical data, researchers from The Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, the National Water Research Institute of Environment Canada, and Niagara University (New York) found that Lake Erie increasingly resembles the polluted lake known during late-1970's and early-1980's rather than the cleaner lake of the early-1990's.
"The abundance of algae groups associated with high nutrient input is surprising given that so much money has been spent to clean up Lake Erie," says Joe Conroy, a doctoral researcher at The Ohio State University. "Our results show that continued control of nutrients from the watershed and better understanding of how zebra mussels change the cycling of nutrients is needed."
The Lake Erie Plankton Abundance Study, supported by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, is an important tool for determining how Lake Erie is changing as it receives more invasive species and as its drainage basin becomes more populated by people. Developing management strategies to improve water quality as the lake changes is the ultimate goal of the study.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Temporal Trends in Lake Erie Plankton Biomass: Roles of External Phosphorus Loading and Dreissenid Mussels," are reported by Joseph D. Conroy, Douglas D. Kane, David M. Dolan, William J. Edwards, Murray N. Charlton and David A. Culver in a special issue on the current status of Lake Erie in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, (Volume 31, sup2, pp. 89-110) published by the International Association for Great Lakes Research, 2005.Contacts
For more information about the study, contact Joe Conroy, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 1315 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio; conroy.27@osu.edu; (614) 292-1003.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; jglr@ec.gc.ca; (306) 975-5310.
Links
Since 1967, IAGLR has served as the focal point for compiling and disseminating multidisciplinary knowledge on North America's Laurentian Great Lakes and other large lakes of the world and their watersheds. In part, IAGLR communicates this knowledge through publication of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, available to members in print and electronic form. A searchable archive of the journal is available online and includes the abstracts of articles from the journal's inception in 1975 through the most recent issue. In addition, complete articles are available to members who have signed up for an electronic subscription.