COLUMBUS – Ohio Sea Grant has completed the review process for its 2016-2018 research grants program, funding nine projects at universities across Ohio. Most of the selected projects focus on aspects of Lake Erie’s harmful algal bloom problem, in an effort to continue to help solve this critical issue affecting Ohio’s environment and economy.
“The nine projects that were highly rated by our external review panel will contribute information needed to manage the Lake Erie fishery and to help reduce nutrient loading to the lake and the problems it causes,” said Christopher Winslow, interim director of Ohio Sea Grant. “This includes harmful algal blooms and the associated ecosystem and human health problems created by the blooms.”
Researchers will collectively receive approximately $480,000 in Ohio Sea Grant support in both 2016 and 2017 as part of the following projects:
What makes Planktothrix bloom? An examination of physiological ecology from a genomics perspective
George Bullerjahn and Michael McKay (Bowling Green State University)
Can fish see the bait on the hook? Linking effects of algal and sedimentary turbidity on fish vision to the Lake Erie recreational fishery through research and outreach
Suzanne Gray, Jeremy Bruskotter and Eugene Braig (The Ohio State University)
Determining the role of urban runoff in harmful algal bloom formation in the western Lake Erie basin
Cyndee Gruden (University of Toledo) and Kathryn Rousseau (American Rivers)
Opening the black box of nutrient processing in a Great Lakes coastal wetland
Lauren Kinsman-Costello (Kent State University) and Laura Johnson (Heidelberg University)
Sediment nitrogen dynamics in the western basin of Lake Erie relative to cyanobacterial blooms
Mark McCarthy (Wright State University)
Characterizing ammonium dynamics affecting harmful cyanobacterial blooms in Lake Erie
Silvia Newell (Wright State University)
Quantifying the effects of surface water-groundwater interaction on dissolved phosphorus loads to Lake Erie
Audrey Sawyer (The Ohio State University)
From the headwaters to the littoral zone: using attached algae as indicators of ecosystem impairment in the Great Lakes
Yvonne Vadeboncoeur (Wright State University)
Anthropogenic phosphorus storage, bioavailability, and cycling in the Maumee Bay and western Lake Erie
Fasong Yuan (Cleveland State University)
Information about Ohio Sea Grant research topics, funding and current opportunities can be found at ohioseagrant.osu.edu/research. A call for research proposals through the Ohio Department of Higher Education, focusing on reducing nutrient loading and harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, closes on November 19.
Ohio State University’s Ohio Sea Grant Program is part of NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 33 Sea Grant programs dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. For more information, visit ohioseagrant.osu.edu.