Yellow perch comprise Lake Erie’s largest commercial fishery and second most important recreational fishery. We presented research results from the NCCOS ecological forecasting (EcoFore) Lake Erie project to the Lake Erie Percid Management Advisory Group (LEPMAG) at the Lake Erie Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission meeting on March 27, 2013. The primary purpose [...]
Don Scavia, a researcher whose work is funded in part by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, presented results from his Lake Erie hypoxia ecological forecasting project. His presentation focused on phosphorus loading, climate influence on those loads, subsequent impacts on dissolved oxygen and harmful algal blooms, and best management practices to control nutrient runoff. Despite [...]
A session in Great Lakes Week 2012, an annual gathering of the diverse groups leading the fight to restore the Great Lakes, centers on a research project funded by NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. Dr. Don Scavia, lead investigator of the project “Forecasting the Causes and Consequences of Lake Erie Hypoxia” will be a panelist [...]
Research supported by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) will provide the majority of scientific information incorporated into public meetings convened by the International Joint Commission (IJC) in August and September. Eight community meetings in both the U.S. and Canada will seek input from the public about concerns regarding nutrient pollution and its [...]
On May 30-31, NOAA Mussel Watch program data, collected by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, was presented at “Mercury in the Great Lakes,” a workshop organized by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office/Region 5 and the U.S. Geological Survey. NCCOS has been monitoring a wide array of contaminants, including mercury, [...]
Cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) are on the rise in the U.S. and worldwide, becoming a serious threat to freshwater resources and public health because of their toxins and disruptive effects on ecosystems. Ongoing research funded by the National Center for Coastal Ocean Science is uncovering the secrets of why cyanobacteria are so successful. [...]
Researchers have discovered that during the summer, Lake Erie circulates in an opposite direction than other lakes in the Northern Hemisphere. Instead of currents rotating in a counter-clockwise (“cyclonic”) direction driven by the rotation of the earth, central Lake Erie has a clockwise current driven by summer winds. This causes a bowl-shaped, or inverted, thermocline that is [...]
Lake Erie is the shallowest and smallest of the Great Lakes by volume and is heavily influenced by agricultural and urban runoff. It is subject to periodic outbreaks of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia. These problems were identified as the highest priority of the International Joint Commission (IJC) as it drafts guidelines and targets [...]