The Lake Erie HABs Grab: A binational collaboration to characterize the western basin cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms at an unprecedented high-resolution spatial scale

Justin D Chaffin; John F Bratton; Edward M Verhamme; Halli B Bair; Amber A Beecher; Caren E Binding; Johnna A Birbeck; Thomas B Bridgeman; Xuexiu Chang; Jill Crossman; Warren J S Currie; Timothy W Davis; Gregory J Dick; Kenneth G Drouillard; Reagan M Errera; Thijs Frenken; Hugh J MacIsaac; Andrew McClure; R Michael McKay; Laura A Reitz; Jorge W Santo Domingo; Keara Stanislawczyk; Richard P Stumpf; Zachary D Swan; Brenda K Snyder; Judy A Westrick; Pengfei Xue; Colleen E Yancey; Arthur Zastepa; Xing Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.hal.2021.102080

The Lake Erie HABs Grab: A binational collaboration to characterize the western basin cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms at an unprecedented high-resolution spatial scale

Harmful Algae. 2021 Aug:108:102080. doi: 10.1016/j.hal.2021.102080. Epub 2021 Jul 23.

Authors

Justin D Chaffin¹, John F Bratton², Edward M Verhamme², Halli B Bair³, Amber A Beecher⁴, Caren E Binding⁵, Johnna A Birbeck⁶, Thomas B Bridgeman⁴, Xuexiu Chang⁷, Jill Crossman⁸, Warren J S Currie⁹, Timothy W Davis¹⁰, Gregory J Dick¹¹, Kenneth G Drouillard¹², Reagan M Errera¹³, Thijs Frenken¹², Hugh J MacIsaac¹², Andrew McClure¹⁴, R Michael McKay¹², Laura A Reitz¹⁰, Jorge W Santo Domingo¹⁵, Keara Stanislawczyk³, Richard P Stumpf¹⁶, Zachary D Swan⁴, Brenda K Snyder⁴, Judy A Westrick⁶, Pengfei Xue¹⁷, Colleen E Yancey¹¹, Arthur Zastepa⁵, Xing Zhou¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ F.T. Stone Laboratory and Ohio Sea Grant, The Ohio State University, 878 Bayview Ave. P.O. Box 119, Put-In-Bay, OH 43456, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² LimnoTech, 501 Avis Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA.
³ F.T. Stone Laboratory and Ohio Sea Grant, The Ohio State University, 878 Bayview Ave. P.O. Box 119, Put-In-Bay, OH 43456, USA.
⁴ Lake Erie Center, University of Toledo, 6200 Bayshore Rd., Oregon, OH 43616, USA.
⁵ Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada Centre for Inland Waters, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario L7S1A1, Canada.
⁶ Lumigen Instrument Center, Wayne State University, 5101Cass Ave., Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
⁷ Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada; School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, PR China.
⁸ School of the Environment, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
⁹ Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canada Centre for Inland Waters, 867 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, Ontario L7S 1A1, Canada.
¹⁰ Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Life Sciences Building, Bowling Green, OH 43402, United States.
¹¹ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, 2534 North University Building, 1100 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005, USA.
¹² Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
¹³ Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA.
¹⁴ Division of Water Treatment, City of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43605, USA.
¹⁵ United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, 45268, USA.
¹⁶ National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1305 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA.
¹⁷ Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI 49931, USA.

Abstract

Monitoring of cyanobacterial bloom biomass in large lakes at high resolution is made possible by remote sensing. However, monitoring cyanobacterial toxins is only feasible with grab samples, which, with only sporadic sampling, results in uncertainties in the spatial distribution of toxins. To address this issue, we conducted two intensive "HABs Grabs" of microcystin (MC)-producing Microcystis blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie. These were one-day sampling events during August of 2018 and 2019 in which 100 and 172 grab samples were collected, respectively, within a six-hour window covering up to 2,270 km² and analyzed using consistent methods to estimate the total mass of MC. The samples were analyzed for 57 parameters, including toxins, nutrients, chlorophyll, and genomics. There were an estimated 11,513 kg and 30,691 kg of MCs in the western basin during the 2018 and 2019 HABs Grabs, respectively. The bloom boundary poses substantial issues for spatial assessments because MC concentration varied by nearly two orders of magnitude over very short distances. The MC to chlorophyll ratio (MC:chl) varied by a factor up to 5.3 throughout the basin, which creates challenges for using MC:chl to predict MC concentrations. Many of the biomass metrics strongly correlated (r > 0.70) with each other except chlorophyll fluorescence and phycocyanin concentration. While MC and chlorophyll correlated well with total phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations, MC:chl correlated with dissolved inorganic nitrogen. More frequent MC data collection can overcome these issues, and models need to account for the MC:chl spatial heterogeneity when forecasting MCs.

Keywords: Cyanobacteria; Environmental monitoring; Eutrophication; International collaboration; Microcystin; Microcystis.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Cyanobacteria*
Harmful Algal Bloom
Lakes
Microcystis*
Phosphorus

Substances

Phosphorus

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding