Lake Erie Integrated Program

David Schwab Marblehead Lighthouse, Lake Erie

As of 2006 this project is no longer current; in 2005 this program segued into GLERL's International Field Years on Lake Erie (IFYLE) research program.

Collaborators

Dmitry Beletsky (UM), Joe DePinto (Limno-Tech)

Project Rationale

The motivation for this project is to begin to lay the groundwork for a retrospective study of the relative roles of physical, chemical, and biological factors on the ecology of Lake Erie. Lake Erie was chosen as the target lake for several reasons including population density, availability of long term data sets, a variety of physical, chemical, and biological forcing functions (including invasive species), and a wide variety of impacts including water quality (hypoxia/anoxia), fisheries, and biological community structure. We believe that a reasonable initial approach would be to identify sources for and begin gathering data on the biological, chemical, and physical environment in Lake Erie. The data would be organized in a format conducive to interdisciplinary analyses.

This pilot project was completed in 2004, however, many of the component tasks below are ongoing research programs. Hydrodynamic modeling activities on Lake Erie were moved to a new task, Lake Erie Physical Measurement and Modeling Program in 2005.

Project Components

Great lakes ice cycles (R. Assel): One of the main goals of this project is to develop a climatology of daily spatial average ice concentration for the east, central and west basins of Lake Erie, which would be included in the data base.
Overlake Wind Events on Lake Erie (B. Lofgren): This project will use existing meteorological data to find correlation of wind forcing events on Lake Erie to such factors as cyclone tracks through the region and upper-level flow patterns. Data are readily available from gridded NCEP reanalysis data, useful for identifying synoptic-scale cyclones and their tracks and upper-air circulation patterns. This data would be included in the Lake Erie data base.
Next Generation Large Basin Runoff Model (T. Croley): This project will contribute by preparing a distributed runoff model application for the Maumee River and applying it to the historical record 1948-2000. This is in anticipation of work in later years that will add conservative pollutant tracer capabilities to the model.
Lake Erie Turbidity Database (part of Great Lakes CoastWatch Research and Product Development) (G. Leshkevich): This project focuses on developing a database for the physical environmental parameter of turbidity derived from CoastWatch AVHRR satellite imagery, which would be included in the comprehensive Lake Erie data base.
Dreissena abundance, biomass, and physiological condition in the western basin of Lake Erie.(Biomass, Condition of Western Lake Erie Dreissenids) and (Dreissenid Mussels in Western Lake Erie) (Thomas Nalepa, Steve Lozano, and Steve Ruberg, Don Schloesser (USGS) : This project proposes to 1) examine spatial distributions of Dreissena in the western basin of Lake Erie 2) obtain estimates of Dreissena biomass in the basin and 3) determine spatial variability in physiological condition. Biomass estimates are critical in determining the role of mussels in ecosystem process functions such as nutrient cycling and food web dynamics
Spatial-temporal distribution of pelagic fishes in response to physical gradients and food resources (D. Mason, H. Vanderploeg): This project will run acoustic transects with the PSS across a spatial gradient of turbidity. The PSS would provide information on Chl-a, Temperature, zooplankton biomass, conductivity, and turbidity. We will also propose to look at the acoustics and zooplankton data in the context of general circulation features (e.g., eddies and retention areas), bottom type and topography (densities of zebra mussels?), and the occurrence, magnitude and extent of HAB. The purpose would be to gain predictive understand of how physical and biological variables structure the spatial distribution of micro-nekton and nekton. This could provide the fundamental information for developing predictive capabilities of where fish will be and the consequences to pelagic fish communities.
Dreissenid mussels as homeostatic filter feeders and nutrient excreters: Implications for nutrient cycling, seston quality, and toxic algal blooms in western Lake Erie: (H. Vanderploeg)
We propose to carefully examine homeostatic filtering and nutrient excretion and P absorption by dreissenids by using a variety of state of the art tools known to zooplankton and mussel researchers—including direct observation techniques developed at GLERL—at different sites in Saginaw Bay and Lake Erie. Particular emphasis will be placed on the Maumee region of Lake Erie. We expect this particle rich area will represent a challenge to any methods. Therefore preliminary work in the summer of 2004 will focus on this area. A full experimental program will commence in 2005.
The Sediments of Lake Erie: (Brian Eadie and John Robbins)
There are several sub-projects under this title:
1) Completion of our paleo-proxies project with Phil Meyers (U MI Geol). Goal is to compare common sediment paleo-proxies with measured climate over Lake Erie during the past 100 years – a test of their utility and robustness for future use.
2) Complete the analyses of a sediment cores collected, September 2003, in the eastern basin reference site (EBRS) – the region of best sediment temporal resolution in any of the Great Lakes. Goal is to develop a reconstruction of anthropogenic impact on Lake Erie and investigate subtle post-depositional geochemical processes.
3) Conduct a (published and gray) literature search of the properties and recent accumulation rates of Lake Erie sediments. Goal is to provide the Lake Erie modeling project with best available information on critical sediment-water coupling and determine whether further sample collection will be needed.
4) Deploy epi- and hypolimnion sequencing traps in the central and eastern basin to measure particle and constituent fluxes.
5) Organize a workshop with the Lake Erie Millennial Group and EPA-GLNPO to present GLERLs’ proposed efforts and build potential collaborations.
Great Lakes Observing Systems: Lake Erie (S. Ruberg): One permanent and one portable wireless internet observation system will deployed in the western basin of Lake Erie. A permanent wireless internet observation site will be placed at the Toledo Light near the mouth of the Maumee River. The prototype wireless internet buoy successfully deployed in 2003 in the central basin of Lake Erie will be deployed at a site near West Sister island in the western basin. Parameters measured will include dissolved oxygen, chlorophyl a, turbidity, pH, conductivity, temperature profiles, waves, and current profiles. Both systems will be deployed with wave-measuring ADCPs, thermistor strings, and YSI multi-probes.

2004 Accomplishments

In 2004, incorporation of ice, hydrology, storm climatology, and remote sensing data into the Lake Erie data base was completed. The data base already includes hourly surface meteorological data from U.S. and Canadian weather stations, Coast Guard Stations, buoys, and coastal marine stations around Lake Erie since 1950 as well as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wave climatology information for 53 stations in Lake Erie. Meteorological parameters have already been summarized on daily, monthly, and annual time scales.
Initial development of a coupled hydrodynamic-ecological model of Lake Erie (in collaboration with J. DePinto, Limnotech Inc.) was accomplished . A 2 km hydrodynamic model grid was established and the GLERL version of the Princeton Ocean Model was implemented on this grid (Figure 1).

2-km grid for Lake Erie

Meteorological fields for 1994 were developed using Natural Neighbor interpolation technique with the stations shown in Figure 2, which also shows the Voronoi tessellation used in the Natural Neighbor interpolation procedure. These meteorological fields were used as input to the hydrodyanmic model. We began discussions with DePinto on how to interface hydrodynamic model output with his ecological model (implemented on the same computational grid).

meteorological fields for 1994 simulation

In addition to these activities, we also participated in the planning for IFYLE in 2005.

2003 Accomplishments

In 2003, we acquired supporting hourly surface meteorological data from U.S. and Canadian weather stations, Coast Guard Stations, buoys, and coastal marine stations around Lake Erie since 1950 and assembled them into a data base suitable for climatological analysis. Physical parameters including wind, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and dewpoint were summarized on daily, monthly, and annual time scales. and are now linked to from the IFYLE web site on the Lake Erie Physical Data sets page.

In addition, a summer student began to investigate the availability and usefulness of Lake Erie water temperature data from various sources. Water temperatures from ship reports and water intakes were acquired and analyzed. The most useful data set was found to be the Coastwatch GLSEA daily temperature data. Using a clever new pixel-by-pixel analysis technique, this product was improved for climatological purposes and added to the Lake Erie data base for the years 1994-present.

Products

1. Internal report (J. Dalton) on analysis of temperature data.

2. Lake Erie online data base

Last updated: 2006-05-11 mbl