Webinar: November 21, 2024

Smallmouth bass are one of the top fish in Lake Erie’s fishery, contributing to the lake’s $1 billion fishing industry. Yet until recently, scientists were unaware of how much the fish move around in the lake — insights that could help ensure the fishery is sustainable. The fish species were once concerned to be a low-movement species, but a portion of the population is likely making long-distance movements based on a pilot study. Bass vulnerable to fishing are known to have higher aggression and metabolism, and if these fish are also traversing long distances, angling may be impacting the connectivity of bass populations.

Zak Slagle of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife is using acoustic telemetry to study how much smallmouth bass move, when they move, what habitats they prefer, and if angler-caught fish have higher movement rates than “unselected” fish. The team tagged 210 bass across Lake Erie in 2023 and 2024 using both electrofishing and angling during spawning season and will track these fish through 2027.

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Webinar: August 20, 2024

Harmful algal blooms and hypoxic zones, or areas with low oxygen, are leading environmental problems in Lake Erie, adversely affecting water quality and fish habitat. Despite their importance, the characteristics and long-term variability of the hypoxic zones in the lake remain poorly understood.

Dr. Fasong Yuan of Cleveland State University is leading multifaceted research to shed light on the dynamics and long-term changes in the lake’s hypoxic zones to help inform policy makers, stakeholders, and resource managers. Researchers are gathering in-situ sensor timeseries data to characterize both nearshore and offshore hypoxic systems, employing stable isotopes of dissolved inorganic carbon to offer a quantitative understanding of oxygen-consuming organic matter in hypoxic waters, and analyzing surface sediments and sediment cores to yield insights into long-term evolution of hypoxia dynamics across the transition zone between hypoxia and normoxia, or areas with normal oxygen level, in central Lake Erie off the coast of Cleveland.

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Scientists are unsure how increasing precipitation associated with climate change will impact storm sewer infrastructure along Lake Erie’s coast. Studies are needed to explore how solutions like green infrastructure and low impact development can reduce stormwater runoff compared to traditional, “gray” infrastructure.

Dr. Suresh Sharma of Youngstown State University is studying how green infrastructure can mitigate climate change’s impact on stormwater runoff with an emphasis on community engagement. Methods include downscaling and bias correcting climate data from different climate models, as well as experimenting with various community-preferred green infrastructures for their efficacy in stormwater runoff reduction.

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Webinar: June 18, 2024

Ahead of NOAA’s annual Lake Erie HABs Forecast on June 27, catch up on the background and future of Lake Erie’s HABs with Ohio Sea Grant’s Dr. Chris Winslow. This primer will include up-to-date information on topics such as nutrient sources in the Maumee River watershed that drive blooms, the progress toward meeting nutrient load reduction goals, and best practices for farmers. Dr. Winslow will also provide updates on the state’s Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative research efforts, as well as the Lake Erie and Aquatic Research Network’s wetland research projects for the H2Ohio initiative.

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Webinar: May 16, 2024

Microcystins are some of the most abundant and potent harmful algal bloom toxins and have emerged as a public health concern due to the potential to cause severe organ injury including liver damage. While currently there are no targeted therapies to protect against microcystin exposure, previous research found that naturally occurring bacteria from Lake Erie had the ability to degrade algal toxins such as microcystin.

Drs. Steven Haller and David Kennedy of The University of Toledo have made significant progress in discovering a potential treatment for microcystin exposure through probiotics. Researchers ran in vitro experiments on human liver cells as well as model experiments on mice to find out if microcystin-degrading bacteria can function as probiotics to protect against organ damage from toxin exposure. notextile.

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Webinar: July 16, 2024

Stormwater runoff carries pollution from land into nearby bodies of water, a phenomenon made worse by more frequent and severe storms due to climate change. Meanwhile, marinas on the Great Lakes can release pollutants — oil, grease, antifreeze, and boat paint — and exacerbate runoff with impervious parking lots and rooftops. This puts marinas in a unique position to become a part of the solution.

Dr. Scott Hardy, Ohio Sea Grant extension educator, and Sarah Orlando, Clean Marinas program manager, worked as part of a collaboration between the Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin Sea Grant programs to improve stormwater management at Great Lakes marinas by implementing green infrastructure. The project has produced tangible results: demonstration sites with best management practices, an online toolkit website, and water quality monitoring research led by Dr. Ryan Winston of The Ohio State University’s Stormwater Management Program.

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Webinar: April 24, 2024

The Great Lakes provide a host of ecosystem services to many millions of people but are under threat from multiple stressors, including cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs). To date CHABs in the Great Lakes have been investigated lake-by-lake or even river-by-river, with studies in each location tuned to local perspectives and framed with different research questions, making it difficult to generalize findings and determine how results from one location can be applied elsewhere.

Drs. George Bullerjahn, Bowling Green State University; Bob Sterner, University of Minnesota-Duluth; and Todd Miller, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have standardized an experimental approach to compare how patterns of nitrogen and phosphorus affect algal blooms and vary across Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Erie and how those are influenced by temperature and climate change. The results are illuminating the similarities and differences in how blooms start, persist and produce toxins in these diverse environments and will inform more specific bloom management strategies.

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Most agricultural land in the western basin of Lake Erie relies on drainage practices such as tile drainage and channelization to successfully grow crops on fertile yet poorly drained soils. However, water discharge from drainage can hinder surface water quality far beyond farm fields, with nutrient runoff fueling harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. Recent research has demonstrated that agricultural drainage ditches can play an important and necessary role in mitigating downstream water quality impacts from agricultural land use.

Dr. Jonathan Witter and other researchers at The Ohio State University are studying how different channel designs affect nutrient and sediment retention dynamics along experimental reaches of drainage channels in central and northwest Ohio.

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The presence of microplastics in Lake Erie continues to be a growing concern, with recent research showing that the tiny plastic particles are abundant throughout the lake and that they pose potential risks to human health and the environment.

Since Lake Erie is an important drinking water source for many in Ohio and elsewhere, one question to address is how effective current water treatment processes are in removing microplastics. New research by The Ohio State University’s John Lenhart and his research group is investigating this question in order to determine how effectively certain water treatment processes are in removing microplastics and whether certain configurations are better than others when it comes to microplastics removal.

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Nutrient runoff, including from fish farms, contributes to the growth of harmful algal blooms. While aquaculture is an economic opportunity for Ohio, nutrient pollution from fish waste could exacerbate this issue.

Researchers Dr. Silvia Newell and Dr. Kevin Neves developed and analyzed a recirculating aquaculture system for perch production that uses nitrogen waste from fish ponds to support production of prawns and tomatoes.

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Characterizing western Lake Erie’s essential coastal microbial and plankton communities and their response to change is important because the environmental microbiome is the foundation of the food web and essential to aquatic biogeochemical cycles. Understanding how shore management practices and coastal processes impact these biomes is critical to evaluating ecosystem resilience.

Dr. Trisha Spanbauer of The University of Toledo is using high-throughput genetic sequencing of water samples from an 80-kilometer stretch of Ohio between the Maumee River and Old Woman Creek, as well as community science networks, to characterize environmental microbiomes with the goal of documenting the plankton and bacterial community that make up the foundation of the local food web.

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Many migratory songbirds cross Lake Erie during their nocturnal migrations. However, it’s uncertain how the topography of the island archipelago in the central-western basin of the lake might influence the flight paths of these migratory birds.

Dr. Verner Bingman from Bowling Green State University has been investigating how nocturnally migrating songbirds use the islands as visual guideposts to maintain preferred flight directions, compensate for the negative effects of wind drift and potentially serve as landing refuge as birds end their migration on a given night.

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Phosphorus from the Maumee River watershed is the primary driver of harmful algal bloom size in western Lake Erie. However, there is limited information about the role of rivers in shaping phosphorus loading to the lake. Phosphorous management efforts in the Lake Erie watershed could be hindered if the role of rivers in shaping phosphorus exports to Lake Erie are not considered.

Dr. Jim Hood from The Ohio State University is developing a new modeling approach that leverages high-frequency monitoring data to characterize phosphorus cycling in two streams in the Maumee River watershed. The model will be used to determine how stream processes contribute to seasonal and annual phosphorus runoff into Lake Erie.

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Contaminants of emerging concern, such as drugs, antidepressants and PFAS, have been found in wastewater and streams in northwest Ohio, but variations in their locations over time haven’t been well studied yet. Establishing these patterns would help managers understand the chemicals’ impacts on the environment and potentially identify hotspots for treatment.

Dr. Kevin McCluney at
Bowling Green State University is measuring contaminants in samples of wastewater influent and effluent from multiple treatment plants around northwest Ohio, along with samples from receiving streams and aquatic organisms, over time.

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As harmful algal blooms (HABs) continue to occur in Lake Erie, knowing more about the algae themselves will help us better prepare for HABs and protect our drinking water supplies.

Dr. Tom Bridgeman from The University of Toledo has been exploring through several research projects the detection of when HAB cells break open and release their toxins into the water, as well as research determining the vertical movement of different types of algae – such as green algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms – throughout the water column. The hope is that developing such instruments and data can help water treatment plants better identify the types and condition of the algae entering their intakes in near real-time so they can and rapidly adjust their treatment processes for improved safety and efficiency.

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About 1.2 million kilograms of antibiotics are produced for U.S. agriculture each year, and up to 90% of those antibiotics can be excreted by livestock un-metabolized. In the environment, those pharmaceuticals can lead to human health risks such as antibiotic resistance, as well as damage to local ecosystems, when manure is applied to land.

Dr. Laura Johnson at Heidelberg University is examining whether antibiotic concentrations in water samples from Lake Erie tributaries can be linked to nutrient runoff from livestock farms into Lake Erie, and whether that antibiotic data can be used to better explain variations in nutrient loading to the lake.

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Ohio’s Lake Erie coast offers great access for recreational anglers, including a robust and economically important charter fishing industry. However, environmental conditions, economic climate and individual angler behaviors may all change over time. These changes could also impact the charter fishing industry.

In early 2021, Ohio Sea Grant Extension Program Leader Tory Gabriel led a survey of licensed fishing guides gauge the attitudes, characteristics and economic impacts of the industry for the 2020 season and document any changes from previous surveys. This information can be useful to captains, resource managers, local communities and decision makers assessing the health and needs of the industry.

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Recent research from across the Midwest shows that with drainage water management, which uses tile drainage to control and adjust water flow from fields, annual nitrogen loads in field runoff can be reduced by as much as 50% while increasing crop yields. A similar result might be possible for phosphorus, with can fuel harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

Dr Steve Lyon at The Ohio State University is examining how this tile drainage impacts other water flow in agricultural fields, to better understand overall runoff and nutrient flows.

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Dredging is essential to keeping Lake Erie harbors open and working, but disposal of the dredged sediment can be problematic. Between the nutrients and other pollutants the sediment can carry, and the murky water disposal can cause, open-lake disposal of dredged sediments is prohibited in Ohio as part of an effort to prevent harmful algal blooms.

Dr. Angelica Vazquez Ortega at Bowling Green State University is examining whether integrating dredged sediments from Ohio harbors into farm soil could improve corn crop yields and overall soil health while also keeping those sediments out of land-based containment areas.

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Alum application is sometimes used to treat or prevent harmful algal blooms in inland lakes such as Ohio’s Grand Lake St. Mary’s, which experiences severe harmful algal blooms similar to Lake Erie’s western basin. But a 2021 Wright State University study suggests that the benefits, if any, of alum application and other interventions are short-lived.

Dr. Mark McCarthy, who led the project, suggests that climate change and external nitrogen inputs play a larger role in the persistence and severity of algal blooms in these lakes.

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Beach visits play an important role in Ohio’s $17 billion Lake Erie tourism industry, but water quality issues like harmful algal blooms and E. coli outbreaks can negatively affect beachgoers and discourage them from returning to a favorite spot. The economic impact of these water quality issues is not well understood yet, but estimates of this reduced economic welfare from 2019 are as high as $5.8 million.

Dr. Brent Sohngen at The Ohio State University is working on determining the value of Lake Erie beaches to the state’s overall economy, and how that value is affected when water quality issues like harmful algal blooms occur.

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Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), including antibiotics, are emerging contaminants in water that are not completely eliminated during water treatment. Because these compounds can affect human and wildlife health, it’s important to assess their presence in drinking and wastewater.

Dr. Jen Mou and Dr. Laura Leff at Kent State University are developing new methods to detect these compounds, to help guide approaches for dealing with contaminants like them in the future. The team also wants to determine if the presence of a bacterial gene that codes for antibiotic resistance can predict levels of antibiotic contamination in water samples.

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Single-use plastic bags are everywhere in society, but despite their convenience, they can have negative impacts on the environment and on waste management.

Farmers markets seem like a logical place to encourage the use of reusable bags, but when Jill Bartolotta and Dr. Scott Hardy at Ohio Sea Grant examined the effects of giving out free reusable bags at Ohio farmers markets, they found that just having bags available is not an effective approach to reducing the use of plastic bags. Instead, communities should consider focused approaches like bag bans and education and outreach strategies, as well as financial and policy incentives.

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Scientists are currently able to accurately forecast the size and approximate location of Lake Erie’s summer harmful algal blooms, but they still have questions about what controls when blooms become toxic, and how to predict which algal toxins the bloom is likely to produce.

Dr. Justin Chaffin at Ohio State’s Stone Lab is studying the environmental factors that cause Lake Erie algal blooms to become toxic or remain non-toxic, to provide more guidance to water utilities on when they should plan to treat drinking water for algal toxins.

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Although harmful algal blooms happen in the summer, the algae themselves are year-round residents of the water bodies they inhabit – but very little is known about other times in the annual cycle of blooms. For Lake Erie, ice cover and extreme weather conditions in winter and spring prevent regular monitoring and safe sampling.

By partnering with the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, Dr. Mike McKay at the University of Windsor can take advantage of those ships’ ice-breaking capabilities to sample offshore waters in winter and early spring, before state and federal agencies start their monitoring efforts.

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Many Ohio communities draw their drinking water from Lake Erie, so making sure that any harmful algal bloom toxins are removed before the water reaches consumers is essential to maintaining public health.

While water treatment plants currently use activated carbon, ozonation, and other methods to treat for algal toxins, Dr. Jason Huntley at The University of Toledo, with previous funding from the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative and current funding from NOAA-PCMHAB is developing new cost-effective, efficient, and safe methods to remove algal toxins from drinking water, using bacteria that naturally break down microcystin toxin into non-toxic component parts. The team was issued a patent on this technology in May 2021.

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Walleye fishing in Ohio significantly contributes to the state’s $1.9 billion sportfishing industry, but the fish are experiencing significant changes to their environment due to harmful algal blooms. For these visual hunters, those changes affect finding food and mates, and anglers who fish for walleye may have to change their approach to selecting lures.

Dr. Suzanne Gray at The Ohio State University is linking walleye vision, murky waters from harmful algal blooms and lure colors to determine the impacts algal blooms can have on visual hunters like walleye and on the success of Lake Erie’s sportfishing industry.

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Aquaculture is a growing industry in Ohio and the Great Lakes region, providing farm-raised seafood ranging from crawfish to walleye. And just like land-based farms, fish farmers spend a lot of time making sure their animals are healthy.

Dr. Vipa Phuntumart and her team at Bowling Green State University have developed a method to detect Saprolegnia, a fungal-like pathogen that can result in an estimated loss of $40 million to U.S. aquaculture operations every year, in water samples from fish farms. This way, the fish can be treated with eco-friendly options before they show symptoms.

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Walleye is an important Lake Erie species, supporting both commercial and recreational fisheries. Management agencies need ways to identify how local spawning populations contribute to the lake-wide fish population, so they can continue to keep Lake Erie’s walleye fisheries naturally reproducing and sustainable.

Dr. Stuart Ludsin at The Ohio State University has developed a genetic tool that can differentiate between walleye from the eastern versus western basins of Lake Erie and successfully helped agencies to better understand the contributions of different spawning locations to the eastern basin’s commercial and recreational fisheries.

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Algal toxins affect the liver, gastrointestinal system and kidneys, and may have a more severe effect in the context of pre-existing conditions.

Dr. David Kennedy and Dr. Steven Haller at The University of Toledo, with funding from Ohio Sea Grant and the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative, are examining these effects to help provide new guidelines for safe exposure levels to algal toxins for people with chronic illnesses. They also aim to develop new tests that can measure toxin exposure at very low levels, which can suppress common liver injury markers in some patients, and to create therapies to treat the organ damage caused by algal toxins.

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Algal toxins affect the liver, gastrointestinal system and kidneys, and may have a more severe effect in the context of pre-existing conditions.

Dr. David Kennedy and Dr. Steven Haller at The University of Toledo, with funding from Ohio Sea Grant and the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative, are examining these effects to help provide new guidelines for safe exposure levels to algal toxins for people with chronic illnesses. They also aim to develop new tests that can measure toxin exposure at very low levels, which can suppress common liver injury markers in some patients, and to create therapies to treat the organ damage caused by algal toxins.

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Harmful algal bloom toxins are a common concern for people living along the Lake Erie shoreline, where drinking water is often drawn from the lake.

In addition to removing these toxins during water treatment, Ohioans may have another tool at their disposal: Dr. Glenn Lipscomb’s research, funded by the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative, has shown that reverse osmosis membranes, an essential component of home water purification systems, can remove algal toxins from drinking water. The mechanism by which toxins are removed will be discussed along with tests for commercially available units.

During harmful algal bloom season, algal toxins can be common in drinking water drawn from Lake Erie. Water treatment plants are well set up to manage this issue for their customers, and often use powdered activated carbon to remove toxins, but they lack data on proper dosage depending on toxin types, toxin concentration and water properties.

Dr. John Lenhart, with funding from Ohio Sea Grant and the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative, is developing these guidelines and sharing them with water treatment plant operators along the Lake Erie shoreline to help reduce the cost of safe drinking water.

During harmful algal bloom season, algal toxins can be common in drinking water drawn from Lake Erie. Water treatment plants are well set up to manage this issue for their customers, and often use powdered activated carbon to remove toxins, but they lack data on proper dosage depending on toxin types, toxin concentration and water properties.

Dr. John Lenhart, with funding from Ohio Sea Grant and the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative, is developing these guidelines and sharing them with water treatment plant operators along the Lake Erie shoreline to help reduce the cost of safe drinking water.

A half-hour webinar on the same topic is also available.