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 →Protecting Ohio River Wildlife
US 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) […]
Read More →Submerged Sensors of Sebago Lake
Portland Water District
Sebago Lake is the second largest lake in Maine—one of the only lakes in the nation with clean enough water for use by a drinking water facility without filtration requirements. Residents of the Greater Portland area are the beneficiaries, and they are invested in maintaining their lake's health. A joint project between the Portland Water […]
Read More →The Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS)
Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI)
Corals around the world are under threat. The buoys of the Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) help face that threat, providing the entire world with weather patterns and data about climate change from their home in the Caribbean Sea. Since June 2018, a new, state-of-the-art oceanographic buoy has added ocean state and weather data […]
Read More →Lighter Buoys Mean Quicker, In-House Responses
NOAA Chesapeake Bay
The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office runs an unusual set of buoys. NOAA’s Chesapeake buoys originated as part of the John Smith Water Trail—a kind of aquatic Appalachian Trail for boaters. Although the buoys are no longer used as interpretive trail markers, they are now part of a larger observing system of 10 full-time stations. Challenge: […]
Read More →Stone Lab Buoy Tracks Algae
Ohio State University
Even before the Toledo Water Crisis, researchers at Stone Lab were concerned with the algae blooming in Lake Erie. With their location on the lake’s Gibraltar Island, it was easy for them to see the tides whipping up green stuff each day in the summer months. So long before the crisis, which took place in […]
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