What’s being done to keep you safe from Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms? Hear from some of the people doing the work in the video above. It’s new from Ohio Sea Grant.
Harmful Algal Blooms
Algal bloom conference in Toledo
Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program hosts the third annual Understanding Algal Blooms: State of the Science Conference — featuring scientists’ latest findings about algal blooms, their causes and the best ways to prevent them — on Sept. 13 in Toledo. Experts from CFAES will be among the dozen or so speakers. Continue reading
Algal blooms: The ABCs of HABs
What are harmful algal blooms, or HABs? What do they do to Lake Erie? Learn the basics in the short video above from Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program.
Tonight: Water quality talks at Stone Lab
Stone Lab’s summer lecture series continues at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, July 26. Justin Chaffin (pictured), senior researcher and research coordinator at the lab, will present a research brief called “Development of a Lake Erie Cyanobacterial Bloom Toxicity Forecast.” Craig Butler, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, will give a guest lecture titled “Emerging Drinking Water Contaminants. Find out more. You also can watch online.
The lab, part of CFAES, is at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)
Forecast: Still some green, hopefully less
Experts are predicting that the harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie this summer will be smaller than last year’s, which was the third-largest ever recorded, but will be larger than the mild bloom in 2016. The bloom is expected to measure 6 on the severity index, but could range between 5 and 7.5, according to a forecast issued yesterday by a team of scientists including from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program.
Algae forecast to be announced July 12
Last year’s Lake Erie algal bloom was the third-largest on record, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Ohio Sea Grant, a program based at Ohio State.
So how are things looking for this summer?
On July 12, CFAES’s Stone Lab, shown here, located at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie, will host a media briefing at which NOAA experts will announce their forecast. Get details and find links to register to attend in person and by webinar. (Photo: Lisa Rice, Ohio Sea Grant.)
Thursday: Observing, aiding Lake Erie
June 28’s program in Stone Lab’s annual summer Guest Lecture Series features the executive director of the National Ocean Service’s Great Lakes Observing System and the western Lake Erie project director for The Nature Conservancy in Ohio. Find out more.
Stone Lab, part of CFAES, is located at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie.
Watch: What people mean to water mean to fish
CFAES scientist Suzanne Gray explains her research connecting water quality, aquatic diversity and human activities in the video above. It’s her lightning-round talk (6:36) from CFAES’s Annual Research Conference. How do fish — from bluegills in the Scioto River, to walleyes in western Lake Erie, to cichlids in the Nile River basin — respond to rapid changes in their water caused by people?
Watch: Working with Ohio’s farmers to use and improve watershed models
CFAES’s 2018 Annual Research Conference, held on the Wooster campus on April 27, featured keynote presentations by researchers from Iowa and Arkansas; a panel discussion featuring stakeholders from Ohio’s agricultural community; updates by CFAES leaders; and eight fast-paced lightning-round talks by CFAES scientists — good examples of the many ways that CFAES is working to improve water quality, while also securing its food production.
Margaret Kalcic of CFAES’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering was one of those lightning-round speakers. Her lab, according to its website, works “to provide producers in the western Lake Erie watersheds, as well as their advisors, information that encourages adoption of appropriate conservation measures to tackle Lake Erie’s nutrient goals.”
You can watch her (short!) presentation in the video above.
Save the date for algal bloom forecast
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Lake Erie harmful algal bloom forecast is set for July 12 at CFAES’s Stone Lab at Put-in-Bay. You also can attend by webinar.