From a press release today from our CFAES colleagues who work for Ohio Sea Grant:
“NOAA and its research partners are forecasting that western Lake Erie will experience a smaller-than-average harmful algal bloom this summer.”
“A relatively dry spring will lead to a repeat of last year’s mild bloom—this is the first time in more than a dozen years that mild blooms have occurred in consecutive summers.”
Read the full press release. (Photo: Lake Erie, Getty Images.)
Columbus Dispatch, May 14; featuring Mazeika Sullivan, School of Environment and Natural Resources and Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park
Trade Only Today, May 6; featuring Heather Raymond, CFAES Water Quality Initiative
New York Times, May 5; featuring Marne Titchenell, School of Environment and Natural Resources
Toledo Blade (subscription required), May 2; Ohio State and CFAES research mentioned
Akron Beacon Journal, April 11; featuring Jeff Reutter, special advisor, Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab
New technology using something called nanobubbles—tiny gas bubbles that are several thousand times smaller than a grain of sand—could help fight Ohio’s harmful algal blooms. Testing, with CFAES as a partner, is about to begin.
“This could be a game-changer for small lakes and reservoirs,” said Heather Raymond, director of the CFAES Water Quality Initiative.
Read the story. (Photo: Getty Images.)
Ohio State News, Sept. 9; featuring CFAES’ Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory
Toledo Blade (subscription required), Aug. 26
Registration is open for this year’s Understanding Algal Blooms: State of the Science Conference, set for Wednesday, Sept. 2, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and slated to be held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Viewing the conference is free and open to the public, but you have to register in advance. Find details and a link to register.
The speakers will include scientists from USDA; the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and CFAES.
Algal blooms are the typically pea-green, sometimes massive slime outbreaks that in recent years have plagued Lake Erie and other water bodies.
The conference’s organizer is Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program, which works to protect the environment of Lake Erie and the Great Lakes.
(Photo: Tom Archer, Michigan Sea Grant.)
Chris Winslow, pictured, director of Ohio State’s Ohio Sea Grant program and Stone Laboratory, will give a free public webinar called Harmful Algal Blooms: The Latest Science, featuring new and recent research on Lake Erie’s (generally) green seasonal slime, from 1–2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31.
Find details and the link to watch. (Photo: Ohio Sea Grant.)
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?”
This summer’s harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie was twice as severe as last year’s—7.3 compared to 3.6, respectively, on a severity index of 1–10—and was slightly less than 2017’s, which was rated at 8. That’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a Nov. 4 story on cleveland.com. Chris Winslow, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory, was quoted in the story.
The directors of three Ohio state agencies working to address nutrient runoff and water quality, including issues such as Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms, will discuss their policies and programs on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Ohio State.
