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Water Quality and Plankton in the United States Nearshore Waters of Lake Huron
Citation:
YURISTA, P. M., J. R. KELLY, S. E. MILLER, AND J. VAN ALSTINE. Water Quality and Plankton in the United States Nearshore Waters of Lake Huron. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, 50(4):664-678, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
To document research results.
Description:
We conducted an intensive survey for the US nearshore of Lake Huron along a continuous segment (523 km) from Port Huron Michigan to Detour Passage. A depth contour of 20 m was towed with a CTD, fluorometer, transmissometer, and laser optical plankton counter (LOPC). The continuous electronic data stream provided a high resolution image of spatial5 variability both vertically and horizontally for each parameter. Multiple cross-contour tows (10 to 30 m) on the cruise dates were used to characterize the variability across the breadth of the nearshore. The cross-contour tows were comparable to the alongshore contour indicating the 20 m contour does a good job of representing the nearshore region (10-30 m). Parameters measured within the lake were related to watershed landuse indices using stepwise linear regressions. Strong correlations were observed between water quality and the spatially-associated watershed landuse. A repeat tow separated by several weeks was conducted to investigate temporal variability in spatial patterns. Strong correlations were observed across each parameter for the temporal repeat samples across broad and fine scale spatial dimensions. The survey results for Lake Huron nearshore is briefly compared to a similar nearshore survey in Lake Superior. The lower food web components of Lake Huron were notably about 54-59% of that in Lake Superior. The towed electronic instrumentation survey as a monitoring system supported the recent view of a change in the condition of Lake Huron to an uncharacteristic ultra-oligotrophic state.
