Researchers from BGSU began formally monitoring wetlands in April and May of 2021 with about 15 wetlands projects, but more and more are being approved and completed by the month. The cyanobacteria that created the toxic algal bloom in 2014 are fairly simplistic. While Lake Erie’s algal bloom issue could likely be stopped completely by ceasing farming, that is not a realistic plan – so the state has moved forward with tweaking farming practices like fertilizer application, updating water systems and creating, restoring and studying wetlands. “But in this case, the stars have really aligned.” A simple organism and a complex problem “Is the funding there? Are the right people there? No matter how important something is, there might be a limit. “Sometimes, the quality of the science that you can do depends on whether the stars align,” Michaels said. The plastic bags contain samples of filtered and non-filtered wetlands water that will be analyzed in the lab for the total amounts of phosphorus and nitrogens.īGSU researchers make up three of the 11 teams working on the wetlands monitoring project: Midden helms the core water and nutrient monitoring team McCluney and Michaels oversee the BGSU plant monitoring team and Ganming Liu, an assistant professor in the School of Earth, Environment and Society, is in charge of hydrological modeling.īecause the water quality issue has received so much interest from so many stakeholders, scientists from many different disciplines are lending their expertise to understanding how wetlands might address the problem. At left, a syringe plunger is used to force water samples through the filter membrane that is then collected in plastic sample bags. The submersible sonde is used to measure and record water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, turbidity, and electrical conductivity of the water, to monitor overall changes in those water parameters as they occur over time in the wetlands. At right, Madeline Smith and Hebrew Cherish Rohi extract data from a device called a YSI EXO3 sonde, as Dr. The samples are stored in QR-coded labeled bags that contain samples of filtered and non-filtered wetlands water that will be analyzed in the lab for the total amount of phosphorus and nitrogen. Top right, water samples are collected at the Oakwood Nature Preserve in Hancock County. The samples are then filtered through a membrane, bagged with QR-coded labels and analyzed in the lab. Robert Midden, background, at the Oakwood Nature Preserve in Hancock County. The excess water volume can quickly overwhelm streams and rivers, causing them to overflow and possibly result in floods.Above, field research coordinator Genna Hunt, '20, collects water samples with Dr. These surfaces act as "fast lanes" that transport the water directly into storm drains. During periods of heavy rain and snowfall, water may run onto and off of impervious surfaces such as parking lots, roads, buildings, and other structures because it has nowhere else to go. Rain and snowmelt from watersheds travel via many routes to the sea. Instead, it quickly runs off to lower ground. In other areas, where the soil contains a lot of hard clay, very little water may infiltrate. Some water infiltrates much deeper, into underground reservoirs called aquifers. This groundwater remains in the soil, where it will eventually seep into the nearest stream. When rain falls on dry ground, it can soak into, or infiltrate, the ground.
Not all water flows directly to the sea, however. As the water flows, it often picks up pollutants, which may have sinister effects on the ecology of the watershed and, ultimately, on the reservoir, bay, or ocean where it ends up. Water from hundreds, and often thousands, of creeks and streams flow from higher ground to rivers that eventually wind up in a larger waterbody. states and two Canadian provinces stretching from the Rockies to the Appalachians! The largest watershed in the United States is the Mississippi River Watershed, which drains 1.15 million square miles (2,981,076 square kilometers) from all or parts of 31 U.S. Water from as far away as upstate New York eventually finds its way to the Chesapeake-the nation’s largest estuary.Ĭonversely, some watersheds encompass thousands of square miles and may contain streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and underlying groundwater that are hundreds of miles inland. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is home to 18 million people and covers 64,000 square miles (165,759 square kilometers).
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