- Time:Feb 26 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm, 2025
- Event Organizer:Jill Jentes Banicki | Contact Host
- Event Category:Webinars | Show Similar
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Microcystin toxins created by cyanobacteria are a major threat to both the environment and to human health in Lake Erie’s western basin. Understanding cyanobacterial growth rates, microcystin production rates, and what drives them will be crucial to creating a Lake Erie microcystin forecast to minimize our exposure to the toxins and understand how management actions may affect future blooms’ biomass and toxicity.
In 2023 and 2024, researchers led by Dr. Justin Chaffin of The Ohio State University sampled several sites throughout Lake Erie’s western basin and Maumee Bay. They monitored microcystin production rates and cyanobacteria growth rates using laboratory experiments with ambient conditions and elevated phosphorus and nitrogen. Results yielded various insights about harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie.
About the Speaker
Dr. Justin Chaffin’s research interest is Lake Erie phytoplankton ecology with particular interest in cyanobacterial blooms (cHABs). His recent and ongoing research projects include linking experiments and models to predict cHAB toxicity, investigations into central basin cHABs, determining drivers of benthic algal blooms, the effectiveness of data buoys at measuring cHAB biomass, rapid microcystin tests, and saxitoxin production in inland lakes. Since 2013 Chaffin has coordinated with charter boat captains who collect water samples once a week for his lab to analyze, and then the captains get a weekly update on Lake Erie water quality.
- How Does Nitrogen Impact Harmful Algal Blooms
- Charter Boat Captains Help Monitor Lake Erie Water Quality
- Quantification of microcystin production and biodegradation rates in the western basin of Lake Erie