Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring
Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation—RECON
When the Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River were connected by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the 1880s, the region underwent a variety of environmental changes. While water control locks were installed in the 1930s and 1960s, the Sanibel area in Southwest Florida still suffered from deteriorating water quality due to runoff […]
Read More →Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Modeling with Real-Time Technology
Yokota Lab at SUNY Oneonta and Otsego Lake Association
In 2022, Otsego Lake in New York became one of many lakes to experience its first cyanobacterial bloom. While the cause is still unknown, the blooms may be an indicator of various water quality issues resulting from invasive species, runoff events or other environmental stressors. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Kiyoko Yokota, […]
Read More →Nutrient Monitoring in Great Lakes Tributaries
Heidelberg University
Tributaries of the Great Lakes contribute to the largest freshwater source in the U.S., and with the trillions of gallons of water transported each year are a variety of nutrients carried by source waters. Sources like the Maumee River are inundated by nutrient loads in the form of runoff from agriculture and urban waste-water effluent, […]
Read More →Tackling Beach Safety with UK's First Bacterial Monitoring Buoy
RS Hydro
Beaches full of swimmers are a common sight during the warm summer months. Perhaps never more so than during the 2022 heat wave that swept across Europe and brought record-high temperatures to many areas. With warmer temperatures and more beachgoers looking to cool off with a swim in the sea, water quality at popular beach […]
Read More →Understanding Shark Behavior through Sensing Technology
Cal State University Shark Lab
Shark sightings along California’s beaches are increasing. Legislation enacted in the 1990s has effectively helped shark populations recover from overfishing in prior decades that depleted both sharks and their food supply. While scientists and environmentalists view this resurgence of sharks as a positive for the ecosystem, it has another effect - more frequent occurrence of […]
Read More →Sturdy Little Buoy, Tremendous Predictive Power
Northern Michigan University
Two solitary data buoys floating off the storm-tossed Lake Superior shore near Munising and Granite Island were sudden stars in 2017. That October, they captured the largest waves ever measured on the Great Lakes—each 28.8-foot high—during a storm that claimed the lives of two people swept off rocks. This attention-getting event shows how buoy data […]
Read More →Monitoring An Active Thermocline, Rapid Changes
State University of New York (SUNY)—Plattsburgh
Beginning in the 1990s, researchers have collected samples manually every few weeks on trips to Lake Champlain to gather data on its dynamics. But the metrics the team has collected are spotty, considering the faster-paced changes fueled by a changing climate. To help fill in those holes, researchers from the State University of New York […]
Read More →A New Kind of Sentinel on Lake Superior
Superior Watershed Partnership, Lentic Environmental Services and UC-Boulder
For more than 100 years, the Stannard Rock Lighthouse has kept a watchful guard over Lake Superior. But now, a new weather buoy is joining the watch in a remote part of Lake Superior, providing much-needed weather data to local mariners, the National Weather Service (NWS), and researchers. Scientists from the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP), […]
Read More →Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area
Macalester College
Inspired by a passion for the outdoors and the local terrain that Katharine Ordway had throughout her life, the Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area (Ordway) at Minnesota's Macalester College is a study in diversity. To preserve the conservation legacy that serves as Ordway's foundation, its mission includes four pillars: education, research, sustainability, and civic […]
Read More →Protecting Ohio River Wildlife
U S Army Corps of Engineers
A complex series of locks and dams up and down the Ohio River enable interstate commerce, travel, and recreation. But maintaining a usable pathway for watercraft comes at a cost. The inevitable byproducts of disrupting the river’s natural systems are a threat to local wildlife. To combat this, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) […]
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