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Monitoring landscape influence on nearshore condition
Citation:
Yurista, P., J. Kelly, A. Cotter, S. Miller, AND J. Van Alstine. Monitoring landscape influence on nearshore condition. Presented at International Association of Great Lakes Research, West Lafayette, IN, June 02 - 06, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
not applicable
Description:
A major source of stress to the Great Lakes comes from tributary and landscape run-off. The large number of watersheds and the disparate landuse within them create variability in the tributary input along the extent of the nearshore. Identifying the local or regional response to the impact of tributary and landscape run-off is difficult as input becomes incorporated into a dynamic nearshore system. We have been developing a monitoring strategy that correlates nearshore water quality with adjacent landscape characterization based on several broad categories of stress. We conducted a high-resolution survey of the Lake Michigan (1049 km) nearshore (approximate 20 m depth contour) using towed electronic instrumentation and fixed station sampling. We describe the variability of the nearshore region and show conditions are correlated with adjacent landscape. We make comparisons to offshore waters to identify the nearshore as a distinct region of the lake. Along shore tow surveys are an effective and efficient way to capture the character and condition of large expanses of coastal nearshore.