CFAES researchers will present “Evaluating Management Options to Reduce Lake Erie Algal Blooms With Models of the Maumee River Watershed” during a public press conference at 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, on Ohio State’s Columbus campus. The event, the researchers say, will answer the question, “If agricultural landowners were to adopt a combination of feasible best management practices, could we reduce phosphorus enough to meet the targets set by the United States and Canada?”
Reducing phosphorus runoff
The U.S.-Canadian phosphorus targets are meant to combat Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms by reducing how much phosphorus enters the lake. Phosphorus runoff is the main cause of the blooms, with the majority of it washing from farm fields in the lake’s watershed. Phosphorus, a nutrient needed by crops for grow, is present in fertilizers and manure spread on fields.
Jay Martin and Margaret Kalcic, researchers with CFAES’ Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and Gail Hesse, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Water Program, will give remarks during the press conference.
The event will be in Room 250, Agricultural Administration Building, 2120 Fyffe Road, on the Columbus campus.
For more information, contact Martin, martin.1130@osu.edu, 614-247-6133; or Kalcic, kalcic.4@osu.edu, 614-292-9356. (Photo: Lake Erie algal bloom, NASA.)