Great Lakes Issues: Opportunities for NASA

1. Great Lakes Issues: Opportunities for NASA Dr. Jeffrey M. Reutter, Director Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory The Ohio State University NASA Great Lakes Workshop Cleveland, Ohio 12-13 April 2010

2. Goal: • Describe some significant Great Lakes issues/problems that create obvious opportunities for NASA involvement.

3. 1895—F.T. Stone Laboratory 1970—Center for Lake Erie Area Research (CLEAR) 1978—Ohio Sea Grant College Program 1992—Great Lakes Aquatic Ecosystem Research Consortium (GLAERC)

4. Gibraltar Island Village of Put-in-Bay On South Bass Island

6. Stone Laboratory: Ohio’s Lake Erie Laboratory Since 1895

10. Lake Erie Cross Section

11. One of the Most Important Lakes in the World • Dead lake image of 60s and 70s. • Poster child for pollution problems in this country. • But, most heavily utilized of any of the Great Lakes. • Shared by 4 states and 2 countries. • Best example of ecosystem recovery in world.

12. Most agriculture of the Great Lakes.

13. As a Result, Lake Erie Gets: • More sediment • More nutrients (fertilizers and sewage) • More pesticides • (The above 3 items are exacerbated by storms, which will be more frequent and severe due to global warming and climate change.) • And is still biologically, the most productive of the Great Lakes

15. 50:2 Rule(Not exact, but instructive) • Lake Superior: 50% of the water and 2% of the fish • Lake Erie: 2% of the water and 50% of the fish

16. Lake Erie Stats • Drinking water for 11 million people • Over 20 power plants • 300 marinas in Ohio alone • Walleye Capital of the World • 40% of all Great Lakes charter boats • $1 billion sport fishery • One of top 10 sport fishing locations in the world • Largest freshwater commercial fishery in the world

17. Historical Trends:The Lake Erie Ecosystem • 1969—Cuyahoga River burns • Getting worse annually to 1970 • Stable 1970-75 • Improving 1975-1990 or 1995 • 1995+ Getting worse

18. Poster Child for Pollution Problems • “I heard Lake Erie is the place fish go to die.” • --Johnny Carson, 1976

19. Lake Erie’s Biggest Problems • Sedimentation • Phosphorus and nutrient loading • Harmful algal blooms • Aquatic invasive species • Dead Zone • Climate Change—Makes the others worse

20. Sediment Entering Lake Erie—4/2/08

23. Impacts of Sedimentation • Water quality is reduced • Nutrients and contaminants enter the Lake attached to sediment particles • Can trace Maumee River sediments beyond Fairport • Open Lake Disposal Issue—1.9 million cubic yards annually Maumee R.

24. Why does Lake Erie get the most sediment? • Land-use issues • Because it has the most agriculture in its basin. • Maumee River brings more sediment into Lake Erie than all tributaries carry into Lake Superior, and Lake Superior is 20 times larger in volume than Lake Erie.

25. Nutrients and Phosphorus

26. Why does Lake Erie get most nutrients? • Because it has the most agriculture in its basin. • Few forests • Wetlands gone • Large human population—water treatment, septic tanks, sewage treatment (or lack thereof)

27. Blue-green Algae Bloomcirca 1970, Lake Erie

28. Maumee Cuyahoga Sandusky Grand Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus Source: P. Richards, Heidelberg College

29. Impacts of Increased Phosphorus Concentrations • HABs • Microcystis • Microcystin levels 60 times WHO • Cylindrospermopsis • Nuisance Algae Blooms • Lyngbya—Western Basin Attached • Cladophora—Whole Lake Attached • Dead Zone

30. HABs(Harmful Algal Blooms):Western Basin Problem

34. HAB Requirements • Warm water (summer problem) • High phosphorus levels • Zebra/quagga mussels (remove competition)

35. HABs:Western Basin ProblemBut Contribute to Oxygen Demand inthe Central Basin, i.e.the Dead Zone

37. Dead Zone:Central Basin Problem

38. Lake Erie Cross Section

39. Central Basin with Thermocline

40. Wind Tilting Thermocline

41. AIS • Over 180 species in Great Lakes • 75% since Seaway opened • Zebra and quagga mussels • Phragmites and loosestrife • Round gobies • Next—Asian Carp?? • How do we close the door?

42. Zebra Mussel vs Quagga Mussel

43. Because Lake Erie is the southernmost, shallowest, warmest, and most nutrient-enriched of the Great Lakes, it is likely that AIS will always present the greatest problem, and have the greatest impact, in Lake Erie.

44. Climate change is real and will make these problems worse! • Warm water favors HABs • Warm water increases oxygen depletion rates • More severe storms will resuspend more sediment and increase erosion and sediment loading • Lake levels—probably down

45. NASA Opportunities in the Great Lakes • “The more you learn the more you recognize your ignorance. I am simply an ignorant man trying to lessen his ignorance.”

46. NASA Opportunities • Participate in CSMI—Intensive years • Member of Council of Great Lakes Research Managers, IJC • Participation in GLRRIN to share information • Take advantage of Sea Grant outreach capability • LaMPs need to know what N • Airborne Program—Earl—Shallow water penetrating system? • Algal bloom and sediment tracking from satellites • Land use/land cover program in Earth Sciences Program

47. Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab Ohio State Univ. 1314 Kinnear Rd. Col, Oh 43212 614-292-8949 Reutter.1@osu.edu www.ohioseagrant.osu.edu/ Stone Laboratory Ohio State Univ. Box 119 Put-in-Bay, O 43456 614-247-6500 For more informationDr. Jeff Reutter, Director