NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

The latest news and information about NOAA research in and around the Great Lakes

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Lessons from Lake Huron: A look back at NOAA GLERL’s 2022 fieldwork for the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative

Every summer, NOAA GLERL scientists travel far and wide across the Great Lakes region to study the biological, chemical, and physical properties of these amazing lakes. A portion of this fieldwork contributes to a larger project called the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative – or CSMI – which helps us take a deeper dive into studying a different Great Lake each year. Instituted under the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, CSMI is a multi-agency, international effort to coordinate science and monitoring activities in one of the five Great Lakes each year to generate data and information for environmental management agencies.

MODIS satellite image of Lake Huron on May 18, 2021. Credit: NOAA Great Lakes CoastWatch Node.

Each Great Lake gets a “CSMI year” once every five years, and 2022 was Lake Huron’s turn to shine. Sitting right at the center of the Great Lakes region, Lake Huron is shared by the state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario. It’s the second largest of the Great Lakes and ranks as the fourth largest lake in the world by surface area. Lake Huron provides economically and culturally important services, including a productive fishery, a source of clean drinking water, and natural beauty that supports a significant tourism industry. It’s also home to Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the first ever NOAA National Marine Sanctuary to be established in the Great Lakes.

GLERL’s fieldwork for this year’s Lake Huron CSMI efforts focused on benthic and spatial surveys in Thunder Bay and Saginaw Bay. Here’s a look back at some of the highlights!

GLERL scientists Ashley Elgin and Rachel Orzechowski rinse down sediments collected by a Ponar grab.

NOAA GLERL has been conducting benthic (lake bottom) research in the Great Lakes since 1980, during which time we have built an unparalleled record of the arrival and expansion of invasive zebra and quagga mussels. CSMI provides the perfect opportunity to expand on this knowledge. Surveying the lake bottom allows us to track the population dynamics of these mussels, follow their impacts on native species, and also monitor for any new invasive benthic species. 
GLERL scientist Paul Glyshaw collects Ponar samples onboard the Fisheries and Oceans Canada/Canadian Coast Guard vessel Limnos for mussel length-weight analysis.

In June, July, and August of this year, GLERL conducted surveys that will allow us to update the status of invasive dreissenid mussels and other benthos of Lake Huron. As an exciting bonus, our benthic surveys in Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay even received dive support from Thunder Bay NMS to supplement the samples collected with Ponar grabs.

Thunder Bay NMS divers Stephanie Gandulla and John Bright support GLERL’s benthic survey on board the R/V 5503.
The large metal claw used for a Ponar grab is no match for a mussel-covered rock like this, which is why we need NOAA’s Thunder Bay NMS Divers to support the benthic survey.

In the truly collaborative fashion that CSMI is known for, GLERL scientists maximized time on these cruises by collecting samples for several federal and university collaborators in addition to conducting our mussel survey.  For example, mussels and sediments went to the U.S. Geological Survey for mercury analysis, and researchers from the University of Michigan will be looking for mussel environmental DNA in water samples.

This sediment sample from Saginaw Bay has many benthic inverts present, including dreissenid mussels, chironomids, water mites, amphipods, and a snail. 
Paul Glyshaw collects and filters Lake Huron water onboard the Fisheries and Oceans Canada/Canadian Coast Guard vessel Limnos to measure carbon content. This helps us address potential impacts of climate change on the lake, including acidification, changes to production, and altered biogeochemical processes.

Plus, GLERL also teamed up with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and the Canadian Coast Guard in a whole lake-benthic survey, during which GLERL assessed mussel body condition, mussel reproduction, inorganic carbon measures, and collected water for eDNA across the lake. In true CSMI spirit, DFO stepped up and supported the benthic survey when the EPA R/V Lake Guardian became unavailable. 

Fisheries and Oceans Canada/Canadian Coast Guard vessel Limnos pulls into Port Huron for the Lake Huron Benthic survey.

In addition to surveying what’s happening on the lake floor, GLERL also conducted an intensive spatial survey through CSMI to study Lake Huron’s food web in the area between Thunder Bay and Saginaw Bay. With a special focus on studying the interactions between larval fish and plankton, one of the key instruments used was GLERL’s Plankton Survey System (PSS). This high-tech piece of equipment is a towed multi-sensor platform capable of measuring turbidity, chlorophyll a, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), conductivity, temperature, and zooplankton spatial distributions.

GLERL scientists use the PSS on Lake Michigan in the mid 2000s.

The plots below show a nearshore to offshore view of Lake Huron’s biological data measured by the PSS, like water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll, and plankton distribution. Check out more PSS plots from this spatial survey here.

While the PSS instrument was collecting data below the waves, lots of mayflies were catching a ride on this research cruise!

Now that the fieldwork is complete, the next step for GLERL’s CSMI work is to process our samples and analyze our data to continue building our knowledge of Lake Huron. Stay tuned in 2023, when CSMI heads east to study Lake Ontario!

For more CSMI information, data, and findings, visit greatlakescsmi.org. Plus, check out this related CSMI project in which GLERL and CIGLR developed an Experimental Biophysical Modeling Forecast System for Lakes Michigan and Huron.


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Photo story: Taking a closer look at how invasive mussels are changing the Great Lakes food web

The invasion of zebra and quagga mussels in the Great Lakes is taking a toll on the ecosystem. To investigate these ecological changes, scientists from GLERL and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) are doing experimentation on how quagga mussels affect the lower food web by filtering large amounts of phytoplankton out of the water.  Scientists are also investigating how mussel feeding and excretion of nutrients drive harmful algal blooms (HABs) in growth stimulation, extent, location, and toxicity.

The following experimental activities are being conducted under controlled conditions to look for changes in living and nonliving things in the water before and after quagga mussel feeding.

photo of small quagga mussels

Scientists are using quagga mussels captured from Lakes Michigan and Erie to understand how invasive mussels impact the lower food web. Prior to experimentation, the mussels are housed in cages where they graze on phytoplankton in water kept at the same temperature as the lakes. This helps acclimate them to natural lake conditions.

male and female scientists doing research at lab tables

The research team, led GLERL’s Hank Vanderploeg (front right), coordinates the different phases of the experiment. By filtering water before and after quagga mussel feeding, team members learn about the effect of these mussels on levels of phytoplankton (as measured by chlorophyll), nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen), particulate matter, carbon, bacteria, and genetic material.

scientists pouring water into large buckets

CIGLR research associates, Glenn Carter and Paul Glyshaw, pour lake water into sample bottles for processing at different stages of the experiment.

female scientist pouring water into small container

GLERL’s, Joann Cavaletto, pours lake water from the graduated cylinder into the filter funnel. She is filtering for particulate phosphorus samples. She also measures total chlorophyll and fractionated chlorophyll based on 3 size fractions; >20 µm, between 20 µm and 2 µm, and between 2 µm and 0.7 µm.

male researcher using instrument next to computer screen

GLERL’s Dave Fanslow, operates the FluoroProbe displaying the level of pigments from different phytoplankton throughout the feeding experiment: pre-feeding of quagga mussel, progression of feeding on an hourly basis, and final measurements at the end of the experiment. The FluoroProbe measurements determine the concentration of pigments, such as chlorophyll, that quagga mussels filter out of the water throughout the experiment.

zoom in of computer screen showing lines and data

The FluoroProbe emits highly specific wavelengths of light using an LED array, which then trigger a fluorescence response in algae pigments and allow the immediate classification of green and blue green algae, cryptomonads, and diatoms.

male scientists filtering water

University of Michigan scientists, Vincent Denef (left and upper right, kneeling in bottom right) and Nikesh Dahal (standing in bottom right), filter water before and after quagga mussel feeding. They are looking at changes in the bacterial community based on the genetic composition of groups, focusing on the variability of toxic production in cyanobacteria in harmful algal blooms. Following the filtration phase of the experiment, they will conduct DNA and RNA sequencing for toxicity gene expression in the cyanobacteria.