You are here:
Lake Superior: Nearshore Variability and a Landscape Driver Concept
Citation:
YURISTA, P. M. AND J. R. KELLY. Lake Superior: Nearshore Variability and a Landscape Driver Concept. Presented at Ecology of Lake Superior Conference, Duluth, MN, May 03 - 05, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
Our increasing accumulation of data in the nearshore is revealing a pattern in spatial and temporal variability of the nearshore in Lake Superior and a better understanding of how this pattern is driven or structured by the landscape.
Description:
High spatial variation is well known to exist in water quality parameters of the Great Lakes nearshore, however strong patterns for extended reaches are also observed and found to be robust across a seasonal time frame. Less is known about robustness of inter-annual variation within parameters for water quality in the nearshore. We have been conducting high-resolution surveys with towed electronic instrumentation in nearshore areas of Lake Superior and have combined several seasons (2001-2005) of measurements from multiple research programs to investigate how spatial variation correlates across years. The combined surveys ranged across approximately 1200 km of the US shore. In addition to the electronic surveys we also sampled fixed stations to collect other parameters not observed by the in situ electronic sensors and calibration data. The electronic sensor illustrated spatial and temporal variability of water quality in the nearshore. We found a consistent pattern across the years and seasons for the US shore of Lake Superior that related to landscape characterization. We did multivariate stepwise regressions on the nearshore measurements with respect to landscape characteristics of the adjacent watershedd (US only) and found clear correlations. Our increasing accumulation of data in the nearshore is revealing a pattern in spatial and temporal variability of the nearshore in Lake Superior and a better understanding of how this pattern is driven or structured by the landscape.