SUMMER 2013 APPLICATION AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROFESSIONALS

Monitoring Alaska’s Changing Climate page 10

Sturgeon Surgeons page 22

Guatemala’s Deepest Lake page 33 CONTENTS ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR | SUMMER 2013 03 Ocean Mesocosms 04 Environmental Education 06 African River Prawn 09 Model River 10 Alaska Climate Monitoring 12 Air Quality Egg At Fondriest.com, the web ordering experience runs as smoothly as the equipment you buy. Discover a Storm Lake Sediment 13 comprehensive set of online resources that simplify 14 RECON Network the equipment purchasing process and offer a 16 Lake Erie Algal Blooms rich knowledge base of environmental monitoring information. 18 Acoustic Whale Tracking 20 Eyes Over Puget Sound Order cutting-edge environmental monitoring 22 Tracking Atlantic Sturgeon equipment at Fondriest.com where each product page features detailed descriptions and technical Monitoring Gear 18 24 specs, as well as relevant documents, photos, 26 Wisc. Aquaculture Map product videos, accessories, package contents, 28 TDS and Stream Insects and more. 30 Lake Mead fondriest.com 32 King Harbor Fish Kill 33 Conserving Lake Atitlán Read more @ fondriest.com/news 35 DIY Temperature String EM ONLINE RECENT FEATURES 30 36 Industry Profile: John Lenters 28 38 New Technology 40 Crossword Puzzle WELCOME... Welcome to the Summer Edition of the Environmental Monitor. This issue features two international stories, including an effort in Senegal STAFF to restore a native prawn species that preys on a disease-carrying Steve Fondriest, President snail. We also head to Guatemala, where scientists are working with [email protected] citizens to conserve the threatened Lake Atitlán. Back in the states, we take a look at monitoring networks in Puget Sound, Alaska and Paul Nieberding, General Manager [email protected] along Florida’s Gulf Coast. We also have something for you DIY types, including a PVC-and-pegboard buoy and a thermistor string on a Jeff Gillies, Editor [email protected] shoestring budget. Austen Verrilli, Staff Writer [email protected] Located in Fairborn, Ohio, Fondriest Environmental is the trusted LSU Documents Rare Oarfish Breath of the Amazon Connecting Great Lakes Streams partner you can turn to for help with environmental monitoring Daniel Kelly, Staff Writer projects. We can assist in everything from planning and monitoring [email protected] Louisiana State University recently The Amazon Rainforest absorbs billions of Great Lakes Basin streams are hindered to systems integration, equipment calibration and even staff training. Adam Redling, Contributing Writer released rare footage of a swimming tons of carbon dioxide from the Earth’s more by road crossings than dams, Our applications engineers assemble, integrate, and calibrate all [email protected] oarfish. The longest known species of atmosphere each year. The carbon is researchers at the University of Wisconsin equipment – when you get it, it’s ready to use. Our specialists have Kevin Rose, Science Writer bony fish in the world, the oarfish looks bound up in the bark and stems that end found. Many migrating fish can’t jump over years of experience developing and deploying remote systems and [email protected] more at home in a science fiction movie up washing into the Amazon River. Past pipes or pass through culverts that make working with leading suppliers such as YSI, Hach, Thermo Scientific, than the ocean, with antennae and a research assumed that the woody debris up the road crossings to reach native In-Situ, Solinst, NexSens, and many more. Mike Voellmecke, Applications Engineer [email protected] squirming reflective dorsal fin. Oarfish was too tough for the river’s bacteria spawning grounds. There are 38 times as Cover Photo: Christopher Krembs were documented by remotely operated to break down and release as CO2, many road crossings as there are dams Tyler Fondriest, Mechanical Engineer vehicles through a partnership between but recent work from the University of in the Great Lakes Basin. There are more [email protected] researchers and the oil and gas industry. Washington shows that’s not the case. than 7,000 dams compared to more than Marina Lamquin, Marketing Specialist 268,000 road crossings. Fondriest Environmental, Inc. tel: 888.426.2151 [email protected] 2091 Exchange Court fax: 937.426.1125 Nate Christopher, Graphic Designer Photo: Mark Benfield / Louisiana State University Photo: NASA Photo: Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley Fairborn, OH 45324 [email protected] [email protected] fondriest.com discount code: EM1307 Reining in Nature University of Washington’s giant plastic bags help control research conditions

By DANIEL KELLY

ith oceans becoming more acidic worldwide, scientists are Another three bags are kept at 1,250, while the last three will be Wgetting creative in designing experiments to study them. For allowed to drift throughout the study’s course. Drifting occurs example, one group at the University of Washington is using giant because organisms within the bag alter CO2 levels as they take it plastic bags to study ocean acidification. in as food.

Each bag holds about 3,000 liters of seawater and sits in a cylinder- A LI-COR sensor measures light around the mesocosms to help like cage for stability. The group at UW, made up of professors and control algae blooms within the bags, and a CTD sensor measures students, is controlling carbon dioxide levels in the bags over a the temperature and salinity of water in each bag daily. The nearly three-week period, during which they are looking at the group controls carbon dioxide levels by bubbling the gas through effects of increased acidity on organisms living near Washington’s seawater before adding it to the bags. San Juan Islands. “If you start bubbling your experiment, organic matter begins “These mesocosms are a way to do a traditional experiment you to concentrate on the bubbles and makes changes in the might do in a lab or classroom,” said Jim Murray, professor of experiment,” said Murray. oceanography at the University of Washington. The structures, he said, make it possible to bring a part of the natural environment Murray said keeping the gas concentrations constant helps make under controlled conditions. sure that the experiment’s results reflect the effects of elevated carbon dioxide. Allowing the levels to drop over the course of the “Ocean acidification is happening, and it’s clearly due to three-week period wouldn’t make sense when it came time for increasing CO2 in the atmosphere,” said Murray. “The big unknown evaluating results. is the impact to biology.” Murray said the study, which is about halfway through, is yielding The 6-meter polyethylene bags are sealed at their bottom ends. interesting results so far, but the full findings won’t be available until Five meters are submerged and 1 meter remains above the after its completion. It’s interesting research, he said, but notes that surface. Metal frames give structure to the bags and stabilize the it’s also an immersive learning experience for students. Pupils fulfill vessels during rough water conditions. their credit hour requirements by taking just one class and are at Friday Harbor almost every day. The students talk about their work There are nine bags being studied. Three are held at the carbon via a class blog. dioxide levels of water near UW’s Friday Harbor lab – 650 parts per million. For comparison, the current concentration of CO2 in the “Students get to learn about collecting, sampling and analyzing Photo: James Murray James Photo: FONDRIEST environmental monitoring products atmosphere is at 400. results,” said Murray. “And it’s great because they can see if they fondriest.com want to go on in research.”

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 3 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

What About BOB? Flood of Knowledge Someone within earshot of Lisa Adams On a late summer day in 2011, Jen while she talks about her water quality Whisner and a few of her students from monitoring work might wonder how a Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania certain colleague named Bob puts up floated down nearby Fishing Creek, with her. logging the GPS coordinates of stream features like submerged trees, eroding “I adopted Bob as my own research banks and gravel bars. program,” they might hear her say, as she did in a recent interview. They were on the lookout for “anything geomorphologically interesting,” said And it’s not just her. “His Bob was in a Whisner, assistant professor in the rice field,” she said of one researcher. school’s Department of Environmental, “They’ve made a Bob on steroids,” she Geographical, and Geological said of another group. Sciences. They didn’t know at the time that the data they collected would But Adams, an associate professor in soon become the “before” picture–a the biology and physics department at reference point for a record-setting Kennesaw State University in Georgia, The standard Basic Observation Buoy build plan calls for pegboard and PVC. flood that would ravage the town of isn’t talking about Bob. She’s talking Bloomsburg, Pa. World Water Monitoring Challenge about BOB–the Basic Observation she was using to monitor a tidal creek website similar to a professional Buoy. It’s a low-cost, highly adaptable in South Carolina to a corner of the monitoring network’s data portal. The data is part of a growing initiative People from America to Zimbabwe people had more time to get out and water quality monitoring platform that’s lab and shifted her focus to bringing to involve Bloomsburg geology and began scooping up a cup of the local sample. If the schedule broadened, forging a connection between students the BOB experience to students in the “Not only do the students get to collect geography students in tracking the agua this March, sharing their findings Walsh and her team thought, groups and their local waterways while helping Southeast. She now works to build data for their watershed, but they get to changing creek, and the experience will with the world as part of the World Water will sample. So, they turned the one-day train the next generation of scientists partnerships between schools and post and share it on the SECOORA site teach students the skills of their chosen Monitoring Challenge. event into a ten-month challenge, from to gather and interpret environmental science education centers. for all to see,” Adams said. “It parallels field while producing useful data to help March through December. data. what a scientist would be doing in a regional planners cope with historically What started as a one-day celebration Her first success came in 2010 when she real ocean observing situation like flood-prone waterways. of the Clean Water Act is now an The idea worked. During the first World BOB began as the brainchild of Doug partnered with Angela Taylor, a teacher SECOORA does.” international awareness event with a Water Monitoring Day coordinated Levin, who developed the buoy while at at Hilton Head Preparatory School, and “We have a lot of students who are in quarter million participants spanning by WEF in 2006, there were 28,150 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric the Coastal Discovery Museum. The Adams hopes to take student data geography and planning majors, so time and space to raise awareness about documented site visits submitted. Administration’s Chesapeake Bay Office class deployed a buoy in a tidal creek sharing to another level with her next they would be the sorts of folks who go water quality. Participation grew nearly nine times with as a way to give students a hands-on on the museum’s property and used project, called SPLASSH–Student out and use these data,” Whisner said. more than 250,000 site visits documented experience in learning about local salinity data from PASCO sensors to Programs like Aquatic Science Sampling “And the geology students would be the “Water monitoring is really one of the by 2012. Groups from 66 countries water quality. track tide cycles. Headquarters. The plan is to build a ones who go out and produce the data.” tools that we use to get (people) out to partook in the 2012 event. social network based on water data their waterways,” said Lorien Walsh, who The platform is constructed from PVC “It was a beautiful partnership between that will give students experience of By plugging students into the critical manages the program for the Water WEF and IWA provide water monitoring pipe and pegboard. From there, a university scientist, a high school collecting data and sharing it online. thinking behind good natural resources Environment Federation. test kits to challenge participants. The the design and instruments are that was just dying to get their hands management, the school can help kits include tablets that dissolve in water customizable for whatever purpose, and feet wet, and an informal science Submitting data to a central hub is provide that science and a great On Oct. 18, 2002, America’s Clean samples and change color to indicate from casual outreach and education ed center that used it as an outreach fairly common practice for professional educational experience. Water Foundation started World Water pH and dissolved oxygen levels. The cup to collecting high-quality data for tool,” Adams said. “The kids really got scientists, but the rigidity of the process Monitoring Day on the anniversary of containing the components doubles government monitoring programs. into it because the creek was in their makes it difficult to involve students. the Clean Water Act. Just a few years as a sampling container and is used backyard. It just became a personal later, the Water Environment Federation to measure turbidity with a Secchi disk Adams caught wind of BOB after the connection and a hands-on experience “When you think about the big issues took over the event. Walsh described decal attached to the bottom. Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing that was very meaningful for the like climate change and ocean the transition as a “natural fit,” noting Regional Association and Centers for students involved.” acidification the future scientists will the organization wanted to raise more Participants are also welcome to Ocean Sciences Education Excellence process vast amounts of data to model awareness for the importance of water add parameters or use their own (that’s SECOORA and COSEE for short) Adams is in the midst of starting a new and forecast these changes,” she said. quality. instrumentation to collect data. Site adopted the platform as an outreach partnership with the Chattahoochee visits can be logged into a database on tool. In 2009, the groups hosted a BOB Nature Center’s Director of Education “But before these students can become One thing that had to change was the the World Water Monitoring Challenge workshop and asked Adams to join in. Tom Howick. This BOB floats on one of proficient data consumers, they limited 24-hour window for monitoring website, www.monitorwater.org.

the center’s ponds that leads into the must experience data collection for Adams Lisa Photo: Region Administrative Special Hong Kong Supplies Department, Water of the Chu (right) Irene Whisner; (left) Jen Photo: waterways. More international After that, Adams joined the cause. She Chattahoochee River. The data they themselves and be data producers.” engagement couldn’t happen until exiled the $13,000 piece of equipment collect is posted on the SECOORA

4 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 5 dam built on the Senegal River in infections in Kenya by introducing the they’re very aggressive towards the A the 1980s wiped out the basin’s Louisiana crayfish. snails because there is no other source population of the African river prawn. of calcium.” A plan to bring them back goes well It occurred to Huttinger that stocking beyond restoring native biodiversity–it local water sources with hatchery river The more important evidence that could also save thousands of people prawns could have the same infection- the prawns are doing their job is from a disease now running rampant cutting effect. And what’s more, the the shrinking rate of infection at the Plan for Prawn among the rural poor in Senegal. prawn’s commercial value could make project’s three test sites, where the African river prawn restoration helps fight a prolific parasitic disease the strategy self-sustaining. Prawns number of cases has dropped by The Diama Dam helped secure the West raised, stocked and sold by villagers around 50 percent. Those who do African coastal nation’s supply of fresh could maintain an infection-fighting get infected carry a lower number of By JEFF GILLIES irrigation water against encroaching population that doesn’t depend parasites, which mutes the symptoms. salt water. But it also tipped off an on constant funding from outside ecological domino effect that led to the foundations or non-profits. Though that’s good news, the project outbreak of schistosomiasis, a parasitic is still in its early stages. Meanwhile, disease that attacks the internal organs “If you can put money in the pockets a species of snail once thought to and can lead to organ failure. Humans of people who are outside the cash play host to only the bovine strain of pick up the disease through simple economy, that’s about as strong a the disease was recently discovered contact with shallow river water while motivator as you can find,” Huttinger harboring the human strain. A new playing, bathing or washing clothes said. vector species increases the risk of and dishes. A free-swimming form of the infection. The rate of infection in a parasite burrows into human skin. After a trip to Senegal in 2007 and a village where few rounds of grant applications, the prawns Freshwater snails play host to the project won funding from the Bill and parasite for part of its life cycle. In the Melinda Gates Foundation in 2010. That Senegal River system, the snails—and year kicked off 12 by extension, the disease—were once months of kept in check by the African river water prawn, its natural predator. But the dam cut off the prawn’s migratory route to its brackish spawning grounds in the river’s estuary. Once its predator disappeared, the snail population grew quickly. Schistosomiasis African river infection rates rose with it. prawn fingerling.

A drug developed to treat the disease has suppressed infection quality monitoring haven’t been stocked has recently rates somewhat, prior to their first stocking efforts. jumped from 50 percent to 84 percent. but its effects The monitoring continues today, both are limited. It’s in the river and in the hatchery tanks. “That’s 84 percent of all the people in not a cure and it Using a YSI photospectrometer, they the village have this disease,” Huttinger doesn’t prevent measure nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, said. “It’s really serious. It’s very grave reinfection. calcium hardness, ammonium, and tragic. You hope not to see magnesium, iron, and pH. infection rates above the teens or 20 That’s one reason that Elizabeth percent.” Huttinger is leading an initiative to Tracking calcium in the river gave an squash the parasite before human indication of how the prawns would The project isn’t ready yet to provide infection can occur. Huttinger leads acquire this mineral for building their prawns for the whole region, but they’re Project Crevette (French for prawn), a thick shells, which they shed many working hard at their hatchery to get all plan to reintroduce African river prawns times as they grow. When the project’s the parameters right so they can start to the Senegal River basin. If it works, river monitoring showed very low levels producing more. Ideally, they’ll soon the plan could cut infections, restore of naturally occurring calcium, the be hatching not only more prawns but a native species and create a local researchers could assume the prawns more hatcheries. marketplace for the prawn, which is a would get what they needed by favorite in restaurants worldwide. feasting on snails. “We’re trying to make it as simple as possible so that any small entrepreneur Huttinger hatched the plan when she “It was particularly interesting for us to can start up a small hatchery in was working for the United Nations check calcium in the water because their home just as a small business,” Global Fund on disease issues. Armand we wanted to know: How activated Huttinger said. “We want to keep it as Kuris, a professor at the University of would their snail-eating instinct be? foolproof and as cheap as we possibly All Photos: Elizabeth Huttinger All Photos: California Santa Barbara, told her about How voracious would they be towards can.” his success in lowering schistosomiasis the snails?” Huttinger said. “It turns out

6 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 7 River in a Box Model river helps study groundwater discharge

By DANIEL KELLY

tudying rivers can be unpredictable. The method involves pumping “The fiber optic cable lets us measure SBoats can get tossed around by cold water up through an artificial temperature over a distributed area,” currents and make buoy deployments streambed made of sand. The surface said Lowry. “We can actually tell the difficult. Wildlife and debris in the water water, meanwhile, is heated and temperature for each meter.” often get in the way. cooled to mimic the temperature change water undergoes in a typical Lowry says using temperature as a To get around Mother Nature’s whims, day. By measuring the effect that the tracer is very easy and cheap, noting researchers at the University at Buffalo cooler simulated groundwater has on that the loggers used only cost a have built their own model rivers. Chris the warmer surface water, it’s possible few hundred dollars. It’s a very useful Lowry, an assistant professor of geology, to chart how the simulated groundwater technique that he says people are uses one of the scale models to study spreads. overlooking. groundwater discharge in rivers and streams. But he does it in a way few The tank Lowry uses is made with a It would be easy to change the NEXT GENERATION others do, using temperature as a metal frame, fiberglass and marine- streambed materials to mimic other tracer. grade plywood. It’s five meters long, environments. Changing from sand to a data loggers a meter tall and about 60 centimeters mix of clay, gravel and other sediment “Using temperature as a groundwater wide. A divider in the middle separates would be simple. As the research tracer is something that’s been water going up one side and down progresses, other tracers could be used • Completely submersible around for a while. It has a lot of great the other, making a study area of 10 as well. applications, but it’s underutilized,” said meters. Perforated pipes at the stream • Radio, cellular or satellite telemetry Lowry. bottom pump in the cooler water, which But Lowry is focused on a temperature ranges from 8 to 10 degrees Celsius, tracer for now. • Self-powered with replaceable batteries He can model the interaction between and Lowry can control where that water groundwater and surface water, which is introduced in the stream. “I’d like to benchmark this technique, • Popular sensor compatibility helps for verifying field results and to make it a standard that people use makes it easier to locate groundwater A Sensornet fiber optic cable detects to start to identify where groundwater

Photo: University at Buffalo University Photo: hotspots in real rivers. The results are temperature changes and two is discharging and how much,” said important for restoration projects and temperature loggers confirm them. The Lowry. NexSens.com stream monitoring. cable is buried in the sand. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 9 TAKING the tundra’s Temperature A weather station network in Arctic Alaska collects valuable climate and permafrost data while withstanding extreme weather and curious bears

By jeff gillies

hen the U.S. Geological Survey began building been many people collecting spatially distributed Wtheir climate and permafrost monitoring environmental data, whether it’s temperature, or network in Arctic Alaska in 1998, there wasn’t much snowfall or rain until the last 10 or 15 years.” precedent for how to build the infrastructure for the instruments in the region’s unforgiving environment. The 16 stations measure standard climatic variables, including rainfall, air temperature and pressure, That meant the scientists had to learn the wind speed and direction, and snowpack depth particulars on the fly. For example: On the great and duration. expanse of flat, barren tundra, a weather station sticks out like a sore thumb to a curious grizzly bear. Another instrument measures subsurface permafrost temperatures at ten depths down to 1.2 meters. “The initial stations were pretty fragile,” said Frank Yet at some sites, the permafrost runs as deep as Urban, a geologist with the USGS Geosciences and 400 meters. The story of how deep permafrost is Environmental Change Science Center. “So the measured goes back to the 1970s, when the USGS bear and those stations–the bear won every single worked with the U.S. Navy and private oil companies time without any problem.” to drill exploratory wells in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska, Urban said. None of the wells Today, the sensors are cinched down tightly to produced oil, and a USGS researcher on the project steel or heavy aluminum tripods and the wires are had the foresight to suggest to prepare the wells in encased in steel conduit to withstand the brute such a way that crews could return in the future and strength of bears. They’ve also had to overcome use them to measure permafrost temperatures. another problem more akin to keeping a squirrel out of a bird feeder, but in this case the pests are And now they do. 30-pound carnivores. “We have a winch that we bring and we send “We have a lot of problems with wolverines up a very sensitive thermistor probe down into there,” Urban said. “They climb the stations, so we’ve these boreholes,” Urban said. “By taking a set of had to work on making them less simple to climb.” temperature measurements every one to three years at these places, we can then build up a The result of all that work adapting to local temperature history of deep permafrost.” fauna–not to mention high winds and extreme low temperatures–is an array of 16 climate Urban said he visits each site at least once a year, The remote climate and permafrost monitoring stations collecting and sometimes twice a year. In the summer, the stations are accessible continuous data across two tracts of federal land in crews maneuver from site to site by helicopter and by plane in the summer northern Alaska. fixed-wing plane. In the spring, they’ll go on long and snowmobile or snowmobile expeditions. In the Arctic National dogsled in the spring. The data collected by the network is particularly Wildlife Refuge, where they discourage motorized important because polar regions show the effects vehicles and the distances between sites aren’t as of climate change more dramatically and more far, they’ll use dogsleds. quickly than other parts of the planet, Urban said. Yet the climate in regions like the Arctic National The stations are challenging to get to and the Wildlife Refuge and National Petroleum Reserve environment is difficult on the sensors and the – Alaska has been poorly recorded. That’s mostly researchers, but the work is fulfilling, Urban said. because it’s a remote and difficult place to work.

All Photos: Frank Urban / USGS Frank All Photos: “It’s pretty fun to do,” He said. “But it’s not like “There are very few if any roads and very few putting up a weather station in the field next to settlements and towns,” Urban said. ”There haven’t your house.”

10 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 11 Air Quality Egg active and could get people interested Collaborative sensor project shows the power of open in this issue that affects all of us,” Borden source innovation said. Preexisting technology enabled the By Austen Verrilli Air Quality Egg’s quick development. The sensor package starts with an Arduino microprocessor designed for a variety of custom DIY computing needs. Developers then integrated coupled carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, temperature and humidity sensors designed for the auto industry. Muddy

Once the group had a working prototype, they continued their open source methods by crowdsourcing funding to produce the Eggs. The group Waters asked for $39,000 total to fund the project through a Kickstarter campaign. Scientists turn to sensors in Iowa’s Storm Lake They hit their goal in five days and to sort out resuspending sediment ended up with more than three times the requested amount when the 30-day campaign closed. By Adam Redling

“I think it just says this is an issue that’s important to people and they want to be involved at some level,” Borden said.

The Air Quality Egg is now in production through a contributing company called Wicked Device. About 400 have been ind probably isn’t the first thing that total suspended solids and total said. “They help stabilize the bottom. built and shipped to people across the people think of when considering nitrogen conditions. They also give a habitat for fish and world. A total of 1,200 were ordered so W causes of poor water quality, but things fish eat.” far. sediment disturbances caused by the The monitoring is being conducted combination of shallow waters and high at the same time as the Storm Lake Researchers are also investigating Despite success and popularity of winds are threatening the health of Dredging Program, which is an other measures to help improve the n openly developed air monitoring stays indoors. The two communicate the egg, the speed and method of Iowa’s Storm Lake. attempt by the Iowa’s Department of water’s turbidity. For instance, stabilizing device in an egg-shaped package wirelessly and the base station transmits development and release limited its A Natural Resources, Lake Preservation shorelines could cut erosion in the raises a question. Can science work air quality data onto a free online capability. Led by Clayton Williams and John Association, Lake Improvement watershed. Stopping erosion could help at public demand, or do scientists database in real time. That’s all in a Downing, professors in Iowa State Committee, Buena Vista County and curb sediment pollution from outside determine what people need? package that costs $185. Borden unabashedly said he knows University’s Department of Ecology, cities of Storm Lake and Lakeside to sources finding its way to Storm Lake. scientists would not consider the Evolution and Organismal Biology, a increase the lake’s depth. In the case of the Air Quality Egg, the The project started when Ed Borden, monitoring device accurate enough research team has begun monitoring It is still too early for researchers to draw public won the tug-of war. From start to the lead organizer, began engaging for their studies. He said the device only the lake to determine the causes and “In Storm Lake, wind is the main driver for definitive conclusions from the data, but finish, the project has been completely people through an online social detects pollution when it gets to higher potential solutions to the lake’s the sediment resuspension,” Williams their aim is to help provide long-term open: Anyone could participate, network while working for a company levels and does not pick up trace levels. sediment issues. said. “So, they’re dredging to deepen solutions to the lake’s sediment problem. anyone could draft ideas and anyone called COSM, which enables tech the overall average depth of the lake to could fund the project. startups. Borden built a face-to-face The package also can’t be calibrated. In early April, the researchers placed limit the bottom that the wind can hit “Our goal is to provide the Iowa community using Meetup, a social “Calibrating the sensor is something Manta 2 multiprobe sensors on the and impact.” Department of Natural Resources, as A community effort composed of network that acts as a catalyst to get we didn’t know how to do at this price water’s surface and at the lake’s bottom well as the partners of Storm Lake and people across the world built the sensor enthusiasts together in person. point,”Borden said. that will continuously measure the Keeping resuspended sediment down the city of Storm Lake, with various using open source technology. Most water’s turbidity, temperature, pH, water is essential for maintaining Storm options for how dredging is influencing worked in their spare time, contributing Borden started a group called Despite its low resolution and low depth and conductivity. Researchers Lake’s clarity, which is vital for the lake’s sediment resuspension,” Williams said. whatever expertise or elbow grease they Sensemakers in 2010. In October of 2011 accuracy, the sensor may provide are using a YSI 6600 sonde to measure ecological balance. Limiting light “So, we’re hoping to be able to link the had. people started meeting in person. The some valuable information to average a vertical profile of dissolved oxygen, exposure influences the plants that can wind to our in-lake sensors to tell them project took off with meetings in New Joes, Janes and scientists alike. There conductivity, pH, depth, temperature grow in the lake, Williams said. how the lake responds to wind so they The result was a sensor that collects York City and Amsterdam to draft ideas, is already a network of the sensors Photo: Albert Chao Photo: Limnology Lab University State Iowa Photo: and turbidity. In addition to the team’s can better manage the lake.” air quality data outdoors coupled test and build the package. “Our goal broadcasting information from countries sensor data, they’ll also monitor Storm “If they don’t have enough light, there with an egg-shaped base station that was to put something out that was very across the world. Lake’s algal biomass, total phosphorus, won’t be as many aquatic plants,” he

12 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 13 the estuary. The volume of that flow has a big influence on the nutrients and salinity in the marine habitats around the island, but the corps also has to meet needs for flood control and water storage for Everglades sugar cane farms.

“The fresh water that’s coming from that structure is highly managed and manipulated depending on the needs of the people around Lake Okeechobee, the needs of the Everglades and the needs of the Everglades agricultural area,” Milbrandt said.

Releases from the dam are typically low in the winter because the corps is storing water for agriculture. The drop in freshwater inputs drives salinity up around Sanibel Island. In the summer, dam releases are increased to help control flooding, which pushes salinity down.

“And that stops any submerged aquatic vegetation from being RUNNING able to get a foothold in there,” Martignette said. “The freshwater grasses die off in the winter when the salinity goes up. And then the saltwater grasses die off in the summer when the salinity goes down.”

The flood control releases also bring high nitrogen and recon phosphorus loading, which is thought to intensify red tide blooms. So, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation joins a weekly The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation conference call of scientists and generally requests that the corps sends more or less water, depending on the time of year. Foundation’s observatory network keeps Fresh data from RECON helps back up their arguments. an eye on a Southwest Florida estuary “That’s where the real-time capability comes in very handy,” Martignette said. “If we were getting the data two weeks after the By Jeff Gillies fact, it wouldn’t do us much good for that.”

RECON also includes several weather stations that help inform the local boating community. Boaters will also benefit from a planned expansion of the network. A Nortek AWAC sensor paired n January 2010, a cold snap swept through Florida, bringing The River Estuary Coastal Observing Network, or RECON, with a NexSens CB-500 Coastal Data Buoy will bring real-time Iair and water temperatures down well below normal with measures a full array of water quality parameters at seven wave and ocean current readings to the area for the first time, disastrous effects for some marine species. locations around Sanibel Island and up the Caloosahatchee Martignette said. River. Continuous measurements from a Satlantic LOBO A die-off of snook, a popular game fish, was so widespread instrument at each site are broadcast in real-time to the “We have the scientific reasons for it,” he said. “But the website is that the state closed the recreational harvest for the species–a network’s website. there for anyone to go on and check out.” ban that remains in place today. Today, the network is programmed to alert managers via email The chill was also hard on sea turtles, which suffer from “cold- if temperatures persistently hover around levels that could stunning” when water temperatures drop below a certain trigger another cold-stunning event. The early warning could threshold, according to A.J. Martignette, a research assistant help save time in rallying troops to help scoop up struggling with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine turtles and take them to rehabilitation centers. Laboratory. “There are state resources that can be mobilized,” said Eric “They get very lethargic and can have trouble coming to the Milbrandt, the marine laboratory’s director. “Universities and surface to breathe,” Martignette said. research labs that may have vessels can put them on alert and maybe sidetrack some of their other activities to come The conservation foundation laboratory’s seven-station water and rescue animals.” quality monitoring network in the waters around Sanibel and Captiva islands, Gulf Coast barrier islands in Southwest Florida, The real-time data from the network also helps inform the recorded water temperatures in the mid- to low-40s Fahrenheit. foundation’s weekly consultations with the U.S. Army Corps of Prior to that, the lowest temperature the system had recorded Engineers over water management in the area. Sanibel Island since its installation in 2007 and 2008 was around 55 degrees. sits at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River, which flows from Lake Okeechobee and along the northern edge of the All Photo: Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Conservation Sanibel-Captiva All Photo: “We were diving in water that got down to 43 degrees,” Everglades before draining into the gulf. The corps operates Martignette said. “That was very cold for here.” a dam on the river that controls how much water flows into

14 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 15 recent resurgence of large scale algal blooms in Lake Erie may That made for a bad summer for Rick Unger, charter boat captain Abe a sign of much more scum to come. It’s a fact that a vast and president of the Ohio Charter Boat Association. “It basically collaboration of local and national researchers and regulators are shut down my fishing for that season,” he said during the 2013 algal working to combat. bloom prediction briefing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ohio State Despite bleak predictions, people in the state of Ohio have dealt University, Heidelberg University and many other organizations with this problem before. have collaborated to predict a 2013 bloom covering about 1,000 square kilometers of the Lake Erie’s western basin by September. The In the 1960s and 1970s, harmful algal blooms were a big problem groups announced the prediction during a July 2 event gathering in Lake Erie. “The problem was the same, but the source of Phosphorus loading means another record researchers and administrators at the Ohio State University Stone phosphorus was different,” Chaffin said. Laboratory. Lake Erie algal bloom possible The biggest contributor back then was raw sewage, running into Phosphorus loading from agriculture, cities and municipalities is the lake and feeding algae. Municipalities worked to improve water thought to be the main cause for blooms. Collaborative research treatment, which reduced the preponderance of blooms. By AUSTEN VERRILLI through the Ohio Phosphorus Task Force has established target thresholds, which, if met, may greatly reduce the likelihood of future blooms.

Gail Hesse, director of the Lake Erie Commission and co-chair of the Ohio Phosphorus Task Force, said if Ohioans can reduce Really, we are all phosphorus runoff by about 40 percent, algae will not have enough food to create a massive bloom. Spring phosphorus in this together. loading from March through June must be less than 800 metric tons to minimize algal blooms. -Jeff Reutter Director of the Ohio State University Stone Laboratory “To meet that target, the people on the land have to do their part, whether it’s changing agricultural practices, sewage treatment upgrades or how they fertilize their own lawns,” said Justin Chaffin, research coordinator at the Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory, Chaffin said if farmers and citizens can work to mitigate fertilizer in a phone interview. runoff, they too can solve the new algal bloom issue in Lake Erie.

Chaffin was part of a group of 29 researchers participating in Jeff Reutter, director of the Ohio State University Stone Laboratory, a study of causes of Lake Erie’s record 2011 algal bloom, which said everyone has to keep reduction goals in mind during daily covered 5,000 square kilometers of Lake Erie’s Western Basin. The life to help reduce phosphorus. “Really, we are all in this together,” researchers determined that phosphorus loading leaves the lake to he said during the 2013 prediction briefing. “So, we should all be mercy of weather patterns, which can foster more massive blooms. thinking, ‘Alright, we need to reduce loading by 40 percent. So, how The results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy can I reduce my loading by 40 percent?’” of Sciences in April. Hesse, of the Ohio Phosphorus Task Force, and Scott Nally, director Phosphorus in the lake mainly comes from Maumee Bay, near of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, confirmed that Toledo. It washes off some 4.5 million acres of agricultural they will be working with farmers, businesses and municipalities operations pushing to deliver soybeans and corn to market. to reduce phosphorus runoff. Nally said Ohio EPA will also be the first state regulator to have a nationally sanctioned nutrient Chaffin said calm hot summer weather escalated the situation in management plan, which should be approved in the coming 2011. “All that spring (season) water that had phosphorus entered months. the Maumee Bay and just sat there,” he said. Speakers during the briefing mentioned that local citizens can do With more than 2,000 metric tons of phosphorus in the mix, the lake their part by using zero phosphorus fertilizer on their lawns, building Tom Archer Tom became an incubator for cyanobacteria. rain gardens and using low flow toilets.

Photo: Photo: Residents on shore soon saw the results. A 10-centimeter-thick Harmful algal blooms produce toxic microcystin, which can kill fluorescent green scum covered much of the lake’s western basin. wildlife and even poison people that drink or contact the water.

16 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 17 WHALE SOUNDS A University of Washington team is using sensors meant for measuring earthquakes to track endangered whales

By Daniel Kelly

agging endangered whales for research is a controversial the first and last locations and from there we can triangulate Clockwise from top: The remotely Tpractice. The leviathans of the deep are mammals, just like movement. At the same time, we’re also recording sounds.” operated vehicle ROPOS being humans, and many people believe they have feelings and recovered by the R/V Thomas G. experience pain just the same. Wilcock says that the recorded sounds give a clue to different Thompson with a short period calling patterns. By looking at those patterns, he says, the seismometer package; One of In response, researchers from the University of Washington whales’ behavior can begin to be inferred. The team gets eight seismometers installed at an have come up with a way to track whales without tagging most of its data from fin whales because they are slightly more ocean spreading-center volcano them. They use seismometers - earthquake sensors - to track abundant than more endangered blue whales. 150 miles off Vancouver Island; A the creatures’ movements in the deep blue sea. Guralp broadband seismometer The seismic sensors are designed to listen to sounds at 1-200 installed in a MBARI invented By following vibrations from sounds the whales make and Hertz, says Wilcock. Impulsive sounds come from earthquakes, housing placed into a hole in calculating time between seismometer recordings, it’s possible while monotonous sounds come from whales. sediments on the seafloor. to triangulate the mammals’ locations. Knowing their location and movement patterns could help shipping vessels avoid “Sounds are different from fin whales, at about 20 Hertz,” hitting the endangered creatures, one of their biggest threats. said Wilcock, noting an interesting communication pattern between two fin whales. “One vocalized every 25 seconds The network of seismometers that the researchers use was and the other would occasionally pop in. Eighty percent of originally put down for volcanic study, to listen to earthquake communication was coming from one whale.” cracks and monitor changes in rock and hydrothermal fluid. It was installed with a remotely operated vehicle on Juan Acoustics are a very powerful technique to cover a large area, de Fuca Ridge, a seismically active zone off the coast of says Wilcock. One limitation, however, is that researchers can’t Washington state. be there in person to observe the whales. But researchers are making discoveries in associating sounds with particular The seismic sensors used for tracking have been snugly behaviors. One of his students determined about 150 tracks of buried in hardened lava near the seafloor. They’re placed in a fin whales vocal over the fall, winter and spring seasons. cylinder which is inserted by the remotely operated vehicle into a hole about 15 inches deep and two inches in diameter. “We found groups of whales swimming north quickly, which was surprising because of the typical behavior of baleen “Sounds travel through the ocean at about a mile per second. whales to take in lots of food in high lots,” said Wilcock. “They A whale can make sounds many meters deep,” said William usually go south to breed, but these were heading in the Wilcock William and Kelley Deborah Kelley; and Deborah Delaney John Ellend; Mitchell top) from (Clockwise Photo: Wilcock, professor of Oceanography. “Seismometers record opposite direction.”

18 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 19 The program also collects data from five permanent moored stations. These sites are equipped with another suite of Sea- Bird Electronics sensors, though they aren’t covered by as many sensors as the flight-based sites. Nor are they given the in-depth chemical analysis.

But while monthly flights cover many more parameters, they’re only delivering snapshots. The continuous, high- resolution data from moorings help EYES OVER reveal processes like the transport of low-oxygen water over critical locations and between basins. PUGET SOUND “It’s like monitoring the heartbeat or the blood pressure,” Krembs said of the State’s scientists connect public to Puget Sound moored stations. “Our monthly sampling with aerial photos and water data is more like a blood draw where you do a full analysis of your hormone levels By JEFF GILLIES and everything that goes with it.”

Puget Sound is a tidally driven estuary and is highly influenced by the Pacific Ocean. For example, summertime upwelling from the ocean can bring low-oxygen, high-nutrient water into the sound. Meanwhile, the sound’s increasingly peopled shores also have an impact on nutrient levels. Long-term datasets help scientists distinguish between natural variability and human signals.

“The holy grail is to separate them from he state scientists who track water quality in Puget Sound in Within two days of the flight, the best handful of photos are each other,” Krembs said. “That ocean TWashington state have found a way to capture something packaged with the monitoring program’s most recent and can be a big gorilla, so you have to that neither their high-tech sensors nor laboratory analysis long-term data and released online as the “Eyes Over Puget understand that gorilla in your equation could: the public’s attention. Sound” report. With over half a million downloads in the last in order to understand the human year and a half, Krembs said he thinks they’ve struck a chord impact.” Puget Sound is a complex estuary system made up of several with the public. branching channels, basins and islands. Four times a month, Information collected by state agencies the Washington State Department of Ecology charters a float “The nice thing about these images is we don’t need to say often takes a long time to get to the plane as a cost-efficient way to hop between 40-odd water very much,” he said. “You look at them and you get a sense of people, Krembs said. By pushing to sampling stations spread across the Sound’s roughly 1,000 scale and of intensity of these processes that are happening get fresh data out the door within two square miles. out there.” days of the monitoring flights, Eyes Over Puget Sound is helping change that. In 2011, Christopher Krembs, lead oceanographer with the And pairing the pictures with both very recent and long term And sprucing up the data with photos ecology department, realized that the plane had an empty data helps create context that helps people follow along. from 2,500 feet helps it hit home. seat on its flights over the Sound to and from Olympia where it picks up monitoring equipment. Now Krembs occupies “You can tell a story,” he said. “We realized when you tell a “People see now their own backyard that seat once a month, making good use of his love for story, people really get interested, much more than if you just from a very different perspective,” photography. deliver plain data or graphs.” Krembs said. “They start to ask more questions. They learn to observe the “It’s my highlight of the month,” Krembs said. “It gets me out of During the department’s sampling flights, the float plane system with very different eyes. So it’s cubicle land.” lands at a station and the crew lowers a sensor package from creating awareness.” the surface to the bottom, up to 260 meters deep at some And it gets the department’s Marine Water Monitoring locations. The sensors, which include Sea-Bird CTD and WET Top three: Aerial photos show blooms and Unit some compelling outreach material at no extra cost. Labs ECO FLNU units, capture a vertical profile of variables plumes on the sound. Each flight, Krembs shoots up to 500 aerial photos of the like temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and Bottom: The plane lowers a suite of water Sound, capturing both the beautiful scenery and important turbidity. Several sample bottles trigger at predetermined All Photos: Christopher Krembs Christopher All Photos: quality sensors at stations across the environmental events like algae blooms, oil spills, clustering depths, collecting water that will later be analyzed for nutrients sound. jellyfish and sediment plumes. and pigments.

20 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 21 numbers there by picking up the acoustic transmitter signals when sturgeon swim by.

“We started thinking about how the fish Saving Atlantic utilizes and selects environments of the coastal ocean for a possible regulation of the species to find out how to avoid bycatch – when you catch a species of Sturgeon fish that you’re not intending to catch,” said Oliver. “There’s no one out there Universities team up to track trying to catch sturgeon.”

Atlantic sturgeon and prevent The glider is also giving data on water accidental bycatch quality while completing its three-month mission. It pulls in data on oxygen levels, temperature, salinity, currents, clarity By Daniel Kelly and turbidity in addition to a few other parameters. The data will help detect where the fish is most likely to go and Oliver hopes to one day forecast the likely locations of sturgeon so fishermen can avoid those areas. Atlantic sturgeon are weighed shortly after being brought aboard. All photographs taken under the authority of NOAA-NMFS Permit No. 16507 “Matt’s glider can go where we can’t put hydrophone sensors,” said Fox. “And as (Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry) network, Satellites are used to measure ocean it goes on, it collects attributes related to a group of researchers who share data parameters in broad sweeps, interpreting water quality.” on more than 45 tagged species up and certain conditions into colors which tell down the Atlantic coast. researchers what it’s like in a particular The glider’s water quality data may also area. help in the mission to protect native “We maintain a network of 150 spawning grounds. hydrophone sensors from the coast of The glider, satellite data and acoustic Virginia to the Hudson River, working with transmitters combine to give researchers Sturgeon spawn in rivers and then go into partners in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” a view into what types of water near the ocean to mature. Luckily, Fox has that said Fox. “When a tagged sturgeon swims Delaware Bay attract sturgeon. part covered. He helped found the ACT by, a hydrophone detects it.” “In using the ocean tech that we have, like autonomous vehicles and satellites, it’s easy to see that the hydrology of the coastal ocean is not homogeneous,” said Oliver. Tagging sturgeon means getting past the bony plates, and Fox ue to over-hunting, sturgeon are incredibly rare. The fish, says doing so is possible by making a small incision in the fish’s The project touches on some of the main which was pursued for its caviar in the 19th and 20th D abdomen. Tagging older sturgeon is easier because the armor- threats to the fish, which include bycatch centuries, has been deemed one of the most endangered fish in like plates spread out as the fish matures. and habitat destruction that comes the world. Estimates placed the sturgeon population a century when newly built dams keep sturgeon ago at 180,000. Today that number sits at 300 adults. “We cradle the fish in a sling as it comes over the side of the boat from reaching native spawning grounds. and transfer it into a large well,” said Fox. “We add an anesthetic Another threat comes from large shipping In one of the efforts to protect the endangered fish, researchers powder to the bath that knocks the fish out, then roll the fish boats that use rivers to ferry their goods, at Delaware State University and University of Delaware have belly up, make a small incision in the abdomen, implant the Fox says. Sturgeon often reproduce in teamed up to help fishermen avoid accidentally catching transmitter and suture it up.” the deepest water achievable. Since the creature. The project uses an ocean glider, satellites and modern shipping boats are so large, their hydrophone sensors to track surgically implanted acoustic Each acoustic transmitter is about the size of an index finger propellers sometimes cross right where transmitters in Atlantic sturgeon. and is implanted within an enclosure of silastic, a latex epoxy sturgeon are spawning. developed for organ transplant products to minimize rejection Dewayne Fox, associate professor of Fisheries at Delaware State, rates. After the operation is complete, the anesthetic is pumped But if bycatch can be reduced in has been tagging the fish for years. He says working around out of the water and the fish regains consciousness before it is Delaware Bay, that’s one small win for sturgeons’ tough exteriors can be a challenge. released. sturgeon conservation efforts–something that Fox’s tagging has a pulse on. “Sturgeon in their present form look like they did 73 million years Which is when Matt Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography ago. They have five rows of bony plates – ‘scutes’ – overlapping at the University of Delaware, can track the sturgeon with “Between 2005 and 2007 – fishing in around the body,” said Fox. “Larger plates spread out, so adults a Slocum glider called OTIS, or oceanographic telemetry Delaware Bay – we sampled for three will have scutes the size of an appetizer plate. They’re hard like Aquatic Sciences University State Delaware Photo: Aquatic Sciences University State (right) Delaware Comer; Amy (left) Photo: identification sensor, in Delaware Bay. The glider works with years and captured around 30 sturgeon,” bone.” OTIS- a Slocum glider - picks up signals from acoustic transmitters implanted in sturgeon hydrophone sensors moored along the bay, for tracking sturgeon and measures water quality parameters. said Fox. “This year, we’ve caught 50.”

22 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 23 Monitoring Gear YSI MultiLab These easy-to-use benchtop meters are ideal for laboratory applications. Measurement parameters include pH, oxygen reduction potential, conductivity, resistivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, partial pressure and optical dissolved oxygen. USB connectivity is Lufft WS-Series standard for all meters to upload and manage data from a PC. Lufft WS-Series all-in- one weather sensors The single channel meter stores up to 500 data sets in are easily integrated manual mode and 5,000 data sets in automatic logging into solutions for air mode. The dual and triple channel meters feature a pollution, hydrology, color display and store up to 500 data sets in manual water quality, or general mode and 10,000 data sets in automatic logging. The purpose environmental Intelligent Digital Sensors automatically store calibration monitoring. history to transmit that information from instrument to Simultaneously instrument. measure a combination of air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wind direction, PONSEL DIGISENS wind speed, liquid precipitation, and solar The PONSEL DIGISENS water quality sensors measure turbidity, radiation using the optical dissolved oxygen, conductivity, or pH/ORP. The smart integrated design with digital technology stores calibration and history data within ventilated radiation the sensor for swapping instruments in the field without the protection. A built-in need to recalibrate. Using the built-in Modbus or SDI-12 compass automatically protocols, the sensors easily transmit data to the ODEON X corrects for wind handheld water quality meter for spot sampling or NexSens direction on moving data logging and telemetry systems for continuous remote platforms. data collection. Measurement output Applications include water quality monitoring in urban can be accessed wastewater treatment, sanitation networks, industrial effluent using SDI-12 and Modbus protocols. The sensors are treatment, surface water, groundwater, and drinking water. compatible with NexSens data logging and telemetry systems for a real-time weather monitoring solution.

Airmar EchoRange Trimble Juno T41 Measure distance to the sea, lake or stream bed using A powerful and rugged solution for field personnel, the Airmar EchoRange Smart Sonar Depth Sensor. the Trimble Juno T41 Handheld Computer has The sensor mounts to a moving aquatic vehicle for voice, SMS text and 3.75G cellular data transfer a portable hydrographic survey system or is used capabilities on GSM cellular networks worldwide. as a stationary tool for scour monitoring on Users can easily download data through the Wi-Fi bridges and pillars. Made of robust stainless or WWAN connections. An 8 megapixel camera steel housing, the depth sensor is built to captures images that automatically include Geneq SXBlue III withstand high-pressure underwater location data from the GPS receiver with 2 to 4 environments. meter accuracy. The embedded Handheld 6.5 The palm-sized receiver uses both GPS or Android 4.1 operating systems interface with and GLONASS satellites for centimeter-level The sensor digitally processes built-in sensors, help customize applications and horizontal and vertical accuracy in real-time. Choose the L1/L2 GPS/ depth signals to communicate integrate with many systems to create a flexible GLONASS RTK for real-time centimeter accuracy or GPS/GLONASS data via NMEA 0183 protocol. complement to any project. SBAS for 30-centimeter real-time mapping. The SXBlue can also Using NMEA 0183, the operate using GLONASS with reference stations, even if the RTK sensor easily interfaces The long-lasting battery life provides all-day network used does not support GLONASS. with NexSens iSIC reliability. A 1GHz processor with 512 MB RAM or SDL500 data runs software applications smoothly. The The receiver can be connected to any smartphone or tablet loggers for real-time computer is built tough to withstand water, computer like the Geneq SXPad Handheld Computer using readings of depth dust, shock, drop, vibration and extreme Bluetooth, USB or RS-232. The Windows-based software allows the and temperature. temperatures. USB devices, 9-pin serial devices receiver to connect to any of the hundreds of RTK networks and RTK or a battery charger connect easily through reference stations around the world. the custom port.

24 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 25 About the Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility Plotting Ponds State Water Quality Unacceptable Water Quality

GIS mapping tool will help Wisconsin fish farm startups plot their operations Acceptable Water Quality

Optimal Water Quality University of Wisconsin Stevens Point took over the Northern By austen verrilli Aquaculture Demonstration Facility in 2005. The 8500 square foot facility is a center for research, collaboration and education for aquaculturists, faculty and students. Allen Brandt collected water quality data from across Wisconsin to create a GIS map layer to guide aquaculturalists. The university provides students the unique opportunity to minor in aquaculture and learn the trade in a facility the farms have been in business. Then he looked at the land equipped for research and production. they covered and water quality used in their operations. “The higher longevity, longer-living fish farms had similar water quality Faculty and staff also host open workshops for professionals between them,” Brandt said. on a range of topics from biosecurity to aquaponics, the science of raising fish and aquatic plants simultaneously. The farms also usually occupy land near agricultural fields or forested areas, Brandt said. Inside the facility, there are three recirculating aquaculture systems, which have the capacity to raise fish in warm and The pair’s goal was also to collect an extensive list of water cold water temperatures. There are also free-flow tanks, a quality data parameters from counties in Wisconsin. They wanted water testing lab and an incubation system. to see information on dissolved oxygen, metal concentrations, pH, nutrients, pesticides and more. Outside, the facility has four half acre ponds, two 60 foot raceways and two high capacity wells, capable of supplying Brandt was tasked with gathering water quality data from each 1,600 gallons of cold, clean water per minute to the facility. county in the state. He gathered county-reported information, as well as data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey and data If you have any questions about Wisconsin Aquaculture look from the UW Center for Groundwater Studies. up the center on the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point website. Hartleb said things didn’t go exactly to plan. “We had this long list, but the list became rather short when we looked at it in terms of what data sets are available,” he said. new tool created by a graduate student and professor Still, there are a few hundred commercial operations in the state Afrom the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point may foster producing farmed fish for market. Hartleb said he knows several County-reported data ranged from extensive to downright dry, a new entrepreneurial symbiosis between aquaculturists and people looking to start a fish farm. Now, they have little choice Brandt said. He found there were four parameters consistently municipalities. other than to poke around different plots of land until they find reported by most Wisconsin counties. So water quality ratings for something they think should work. the map focus on pH, alkalinity, temperature and hardness. Chris Hartleb, a biology professor and co-director of the UWSP Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility, and Allen Brandt, Hartleb saw the need for a guide for entrepreneurs seeking the Now that the pair has all the data collected, they are in the a UWSP graduate student focused on aquaculture, will soon right plot of land for a new farm. Brandt needed a thesis project. process of creating the map and programming in models. release a geographic information systems tool that will show So, the two got to work creating a tool that would give more aspiring aquaculturists the best places in Wisconsin to start a fish precision to scouting land for fish farms. There has already been interest in the map from aquaculture farm. professionals and municipalities in the state looking to attract The map will incorporate a GIS map of Wisconsin with different businesses. Hartleb said GIS maps for aquaculture land planning have been layers of data related to aquaculture. Areas of the state will be created in a few states, but there was still an informational void. graded based on factors like land cover, available land and Hartleb said they may take their approach to other states where “It just seemed like it had been broadly applied and hadn’t been water quality. Users will also be able to see locations of other fish there is an interest in fostering more aquaculture business. He used at a large scale in the industry,” he said. farms. said collaboration with Ohio State University is in the works for an Ohio map. Aquaculture is prevalent in Wisconsin, with about 2,500 fish farms Brandt spent some time looking over the farms already in the

across the state. “A good chunk of that are more of the personal state to gain some insight into what makes for the best fish farm Chris Hartleb All Photos: Once finished, the map will be uploaded to a website so anyone Lake Herring fingerlings school in a tank in the Northern ponds,” Brandt said. locations. He analyzed them based on the amount of time can access it. Brandt said it should be online by the summer. Aquaculture Demonstration Facility.

26 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 27 Dissolved Solids Dwindling Insects

Researchers explore the connection between coal mining and dwindling stream insects

By Jeff Gillies

he rubble left behind after a Central Appalachian mining An effort to meet that need began when Anthony Timpano researchers that their methods weren’t capturing the whole For example, how useful is it to compare TDS measurements Toperation scrapes or blasts its way to a coal seam isn’t as came to the research center as a graduate student in 2008. picture of the relationship between the two. and macroinvertebrate samples taken on the same day? inert as it looks. Timpano, a life-long Virginian, fostered an interest in aquatic Some aquatic insects spend two or three years in a stream, so insects while fishing in the state’s headwater streams. “In looking at our work, we started to realize how variable these a TDS measurement taken at the time of a macroinvertebrate Around a decade of research has increasingly associated relationships are,” Schoenholtz said. “They’re statistical, they’re sample may not explain the state of the bug population as compounds that leach away from the freshly exposed rocks “I developed an interest in these benthic macroinvertebrate rather convincing, but there’s a lot of variability and resultant accurately as a TDS measurement taken months earlier. with declines in sensitive insects that live in the headwater communities because they’re the primary diet for trout, and we uncertainty. And this uncertainty creates challenges for coal streams draining the mined mountain region. mimic them with flies,” said Timpano, now a research associate mining companies and regulators.” There is also a question of dose. Which has a more important with the research center. “That’s how I learned about them effect on the insects: low-but-consistent levels of TDS or But there are aspects of the relationship between bug as a young person, and as I grew older I realized that these One potential source of that variability is the fluctuation of occasional spikes? populations and the compounds–measured collectively organisms are a key component of biological monitoring.” dissolved solid concentrations in a stream over time–a shift as total dissolved solids, or TDS–that remain unexplained. that periodic spot sampling is likely to miss. “This is classic ecotoxicology,” Schoenholtz said. “Are bugs Scientists at Virginia Tech’s Virginia Water Resources Research With funding from sources including two Virginia state more susceptible to being chronically exposed or is exposure Center are seeking answers through a stream monitoring agencies involved in mining regulation and permitting–the “Measuring conductivity or TDS is not a one-shot deal,” to very high levels occasionally causing declines in bug program that is helping to keep regulators, policy makers and Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Schoenholtz said.” You just can’t go out there once or twice a communities? Huge questions still remain that we all need to members of the mining industry informed. Mines, Minerals and Energy–Timpano began his research with year to accurately characterize stream condition. That’s what work on as we try to hone in on how to best manage these a quest for study sites. He sought out streams in Virginia coal we’re finding.” resources.” Mining unearths long-buried rocks, exposing them to oxygen fields that had elevated TDS levels but were otherwise relatively and water. This kicks off chemical reactions that release undisturbed. Focusing on streams without other stressors like In an attempt to gain a clearer understanding of long-term In the meantime, the research center’s findings have gone on anions and cations like calcium, sulfate, magnesium and sedimentation or road crossings helps isolate whether TDS TDS levels, the researchers obtained additional funding from to state agencies, federal agencies, and coal companies to bicarbonate. levels are related to bug population measurements. Starting U.S. Office of Surface Mining to expand their monitoring. The help inform standards and regulations. Though coal extraction with a list of 250 candidate streams, Timpano visited potential program now measures specific conductance–a surrogate for is a controversial issue in the region, the center strives to “They leach when they’re exposed to water,” said Stephen sites and scrutinized past monitoring data, aerial images and TDS–every 15 minutes in 27 streams with conductivity loggers. remain an impartial source of good science, Schoenholtz said. Schoenholtz, a professor with Virginia Tech’s Department of topographic maps to narrow the list to 21 study sites. They’re also sampling macroinvertebrate communities once a Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation and the month. “Our agenda is to publish research, do good work and provide research center’s director. “They leach into the streams and At the selected sites, the researchers collected water samples unbiased information for this decision process, which is very often will create high pulses of these solids that can be, in high and macroinvertebrates up to four times from 2008 to 2011. The continuous and higher-frequency monitoring will complicated,” he said. “It really makes for an exciting place to levels, detrimental to the biota in the streams.” After evaluating TDS levels and macroinvertebrate metrics, they contribute to a clearer understanding of the mechanisms work and hopefully will make a difference somewhere as we found that when dissolved solids were high, diversity of the through which dissolved solids affect macroinvertebrate grapple with how to utilize resources, and at the same time, Despite the apparent connection between high dissolved macroinvertebrate community often dropped off. populations. The data could help answer important questions sustain these resources for future generations.”

solids and impaired macroinvertebrate populations, the details Timpano Anthony Photo: Timpano Anthony left and righ) (bottom left) Robert Krenz; (top Photo: about the timing of TDS exposure and the structure of state of the cause-and-effect relationship between the two has Although the work verified the association between high TDS macroinvertebrate monitoring programs. been contentious and in need of unbiased study, he said. and impaired bug populations, it became apparent to the

28 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 29 One of the 7-by-11-foot platforms is operating on the lake. It is contaminants. With the samplers, “you can compare between deployed near Sentinel Island. sites a lot more easily,” said Rosen.

Veley said his team decided on custom platforms over He also uses polar organic chemical integrative samplers to monitoring buoys or off-the-shelf solutions due to high waves detect polar organic hydrophilic chemicals in Lake Mead. seen in the lake. “We initially thought it was safer,” Veley said. Some of the most prolific chemicals Rosen said he detects He said Lake Mead’s waves can reach up to eight feet tall are fragrances from detergents and soap. The antibacterial on rough days. That makes for a tricky transfer from boat to chemical Triclosan is also prevalent in the lake. Rosen said DDT platform for scientists, though the researchers generally stay off from waste piles at decommissioned plants near the lake also the lake on rough days. leaches into Lake Mead.

USGS also monitors contaminants entering the lake using passive Nevada’s desert climate makes keeping the lake clean a samplers. That’s Rosen’s specialty. challenge. Droughts can change the ecosystem quickly. “It also lowers the quality of water because there will be less dilution,” Down, He uses two types of passive samplers to track contaminants Rosen said. in the lake. A semipermeable membrane device detects hydrophobic contaminants commonly found in fish fat. The Scientists from the National Parks Service,Bureau of Reclamation, sampler, invented by the USGS, has lipids inside and pollutants U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southern Nevada Water Authority bind to them. and USGS work together to monitor and maintain the quality of the lake. The advantage of a passive sampler over catching and examining fish is much more consistent results. Lake Mead serves 22 million users in the Southwest. Lucky for them, water quality monitoring in the lake means opening the Rosen said fish can travel throughout the lake and metabolize tap isn’t a roll of the dice. but not out contaminants differently making it difficult to quantify Scientists track reservoir through water quality highs and lows

By Austen Verrilli Facts and figures sources from: LAKE MEAD Circulation *Las Vegas Valley Water District **Southern Nevada Water Authority ***U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

Las vegas Las vegas Wash Lake MEad

% of drinking water % of Lake Mead’s annual average annual comes from Lake water supply* water level 90 Mead* 1.5 12 decrease FEET ake Mead has seen its share of hard times while serving “Lake Mead, on an average year, will drop 12 feet,” he said. “The Lup drinking water for Las Vegas, but scientists from federal hope is that the (water) managers will manipulate water in such agencies now closely monitor the lake to make sure water quality a way that they will be able to compensate for the low years by isn’t a gamble. moving water different places.”

Hydrologists on Lake Mead keep track of contaminants with U.S. Despite the gloomy outlook for water supplies, monitoring Geological Survey-designed passive samplers and custom water technology has also shown some interesting trends about Lake quality monitoring platforms that profile the lake as deep as 111 Mead said Ron Veley, a hydrologist with the USGS Nevada Water meters. Science Center, who manages the water quality monitoring platforms. Data collected shows the lake is in relatively good health, especially compared to 2001 when a massive algal bloom Veley said observed temperature profiles show that the man turned the lake green. made lake acts like a natural lake in some respects. “I think one of the observations that jumped out at us was that the Still, Lake Mead has some looming problems like the trillions of lake actually turns over at a higher frequency than previously quagga mussels covering most hard surfaces in the lake. thought,” he said.

Then there are the predictions that the lake may run dry by 2021. Monitoring platforms equipped with Campbell Scientific data water treatment plants hoover dam colorado river The problem has enough potential to inspire a ticker on the Las logger-controlled smart winches profile the lake four times each Vegas Sun website counting down the days until Lake Mead day. A YSI multi parameter water quality sonde takes readings gallons of drinking cubic feet of water flows through % of Lake Mead’s goes dry. of temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, processed daily at the dam per second (max annual water chlorophyll, fluorescence and turbidity. Some of the platforms max capacity** capacity) to create energy*** supply* Photos: USGS Photos: 900 32 97 MILLION THOUSAND A dry Lake Mead worries scientists like Michael Rosen, a U.S. also have weather stations and water velocity meters. Geological Survey water quality specialist who works on the lake.

30 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 31 ish kills are almost always quick and unexpected, leaving Fonlookers to wonder how a waterbody without any visible Conserving signs of distress could suddenly be topped with a layer of Lake Atitlán. Working with scientists from Fish Kill dead fish. both the U.S. and Guatemala, Chandra is also working to understand why water But in 2011, when 15,000 kilograms of dead sardines and Lake Atitlán quality is degrading and what can be other baitfish went belly up in King Harbor in Redondo done to stop it. Foresight Beach, Calif., a monitoring network installed five years prior Scientists in the mountains of Guatemala was ready to help managers figure out what happened. The degrading water quality first Monitoring network offers a rare Data from those sensors and other surveying efforts suggest are working to conserve Central America’s grabbed attention in late 2008 and 2009 look into King Harbor fish kill that a combination of biological, meteorological and deepest lake when cyanobacteria bloomed in the oceanographic events suffocated around a million fish in the lake for the first recorded time. A second harbor over a few hours. bloom in 2009 was worse and lasted two By Kevin Rose months before clearing. Cyanobacteria By JEFF GILLIES This recreational and commercial harbor within Santa Monica blooms can be harmful, producing Bay had seen an earlier fish kill in 2005. Anticipating that toxins that affect fish, pets, and humans. something like that could happen again, researchers from University of Southern California installed water quality sensors Fortunately, those blooms weren’t in 2006. Two WET Labs sensors affixed to floating docks in the producing toxins, but that didn’t stop harbor measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and people from fearing them. That was a chlorophyll a fluorescence every 30 minutes. Within hours problem, as most of the local population after first hearing about the fish kill, a team of USC scientists depended on the lake for drinking water had data in hand that began to tell the story of plummeting and transportation. dissolved oxygen levels in the harbor. “People who lived around the lake did not “We started getting phone calls first thing that morning,” said know what was causing the bloom or Beth Stauffer, who was a graduate student at USC at the time. what effects it might be having. People “We grabbed some lab gear and a small team of us went out were scared,” Chandra said. Another and we immediately accessed that data.” big increase in cyanobacteria was noted in 2010, less than two months after Stauffer, now a postdoctoral research scientist with the Tropical Storm Agatha washed whole Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, is mountainsides into the lake. the lead author of an analysis of the data, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series. The study points to two contributing Chandra and his team have developed factors to the hypoxia. The first is the sheer abundance of fish a series of short courses and field in the harbor breathing it all up. The second is related to the training programs to teach students and California Current system, which occasionally pushes low- community members about the lake and oxygen water from deep offshore water toward the coast. This basic limnology. Working in both Spanish upwelled water likely made it into the harbor and exacerbated and English, students rise with the sun the hypoxia there. and head out to sample the lake each day. The students learn about limiting Around the time of the die off, the water quality sensors in the nutrients, phytoplankton, pathogens, harbor detected a slight drop in temperature and an increase water clarity, and the importance of in salinity, which would be expected following a pulse of waste water treatment. oxygen-depleted water from offshore. Students also spend time in the In the days and weeks following the fish kill, the researchers watershed learning about how land recorded vertical profiles of the harbor and out into Santa ow do you conserve a lake in a How do you protect a lake when use affects water quality. They also Monica Bay by lowering a Hach DS5 Hydrolab multi-parameter Hregion where people can’t afford poverty, population, and an annual visit wetlands to learn about species sonde into the water column. They also deployed a YSI to put food on the table? High in the hurricane season work against you? diversity and nutrient cycling. The local EcoMapper autonomous underwater vehicle along a transect mountains of Guatemala, scientists are ‘Amigos del Lago’ organization is also in the harbor. That additional data collection helped make it working to answer that question. “Education is key,” said Sudeep Chandra, contributing to the program by providing clear that the hypoxia was localized to the harbor and wasn’t an associate professor of natural space for students and scientists to stay showing up in the bay. Guatemala is one of the poorest resources and environmental science and learn. countries in the Western hemisphere. with the University of Nevada, Reno. These surveys also let the researchers watch the hypoxic It is also home to the deepest, and “People value this amazing resource. “This is such an amazing opportunity,” system recover. Oxygen levels reset after a heavy storm blew arguably prettiest, lake in Central They know how important it is. They just said Joaquin Arango, a student at through. America: Lake Atitlán. However, the don’t know how to conserve it.” Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala lake’s water quality has been rapidly City. “We are learning things we couldn’t “For this system, it took a full overturning of the water column to declining. The lake’s traditionally clear With a grant from the U.S. Agency for have learned otherwise. These skills and get oxygen back into that northern basin,” Stauffer said. “The experiences are invaluable, both in our

Photos: Erica Seubert Photos: Rose Kevin Photo: blue waters are becoming a darker International Development, Chandra profiles and the Ecomapper were really important in helping shade of green as the lake becomes is training Guatemalan students and personal lives and in efforts to save the us see that.” more eutrophic. citizens to monitor the water quality of lake.”

32 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 33 Projects come in different sizes. So do data buoys. Built DIY Temperature String to handle the toughest A low-cost iButton array tracks lake turnover for Missouri volunteers

applications. By DANIEL KELLY Designed to support a variety of sensors.

COMPACT VERSATILE POWERFUL CB-200 CB-400 CB-800 NexSens.com hen Howard Webb set out to monitor something a muskrat wouldn’t chew “The key word on the project is ‘cheap,’” Wturnover in Whitecliff Quarry Lake, through easily and I just happened to Webb said. his custom-built system of temperature have some around,” Webb said. sensors worked perfectly. Until the But the data coming out of Whitecliff muskrats showed up. The iButtons are attached to a chain that Lake are anything but cheap, Webb hangs in the water column suspended said, noting that the data plots have Webb, a volunteer with the Lakes of from a buoy. The buoy is also a product of been clear and easy to understand. The Missouri Volunteer Program, devised an Webb’s knack for homespun design. entire array could easily be replicated for inexpensive array to monitor the lake in deployments across the state of Missouri. St. Louis’ Crestwood suburb. His design “The buoy is a piece of PVC pipe with a TRADE UP for looking at the effect of temperature swimming pool noodle in it,” he said. “Until now, this has been a unique one- turnover on algae cycling centered on off,” Webb said. “Whitecliff will give us a Trade in ANY old meter iButtons, small metal loggers that were The chain is tethered to a concrete cinder typical profile from which to start.” very reliable, but not waterproof. block that acts as an anchor. If the array or sonde in ANY condition is ever vandalized, Webb said he can That meant Webb had to find an equally easily use a grappling hook to latch onto for discounts on NEW inexpensive way to keep them dry. The the cinder block and retrieve it. solution? Small Nalgene water bottles YSI instruments! to hold the loggers. Muskrats, however, In all, the sensor setup is a cost-effective mistook the bottles – which became way for the Lakes of Missouri Volunteer covered in algae – for food, tearing into Program to collect data, which Webb said them and flooding the iButtons. are very high quality. The organization has quality control measures in place “We thought, ‘Let’s give this a try.’ There that verify results so data are trustworthy was no budget, no funding,” said enough for inclusion in research papers Webb. “What can we pull together on a and government reports. shoestring budget?” Cost for the whole array is around $200, The first design used Nalgene bottles and which is mostly for the cost of the iButton call 888.426.2151 plastic bags to keep the iButtons dry, but sensors. The Nalgene bottles run 80 cents

for more information Webb Howard Photo: an updated design added PVC pipe as a each and PVC pipe costs a few dollars for protective housing to hold the bottles. a 10-foot section. Offer expires 10/31/2013 “At that point, we were just looking for

34 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 35 Industry Profile

John LENTERS Lake observing systems from Alaska to Nebraska variables, and then we’ve got precision radiometers to measure the sand immediately infiltrates into the soil. Eventually, the very shallow. We wear waders and have often had to take a Hydroclimatologist John the energy balance of the lake. The most important part is an groundwater seeps into the wetlands of the low-lying areas, small surfboard to paddle out to the station. Lenters got his start working eddy covariance system that measures wind speed and vapor and you get these lakes that then evaporate very rapidly. It’s with lake observing pressure at a sampling frequency of 10 hertz. So every tenth of the highest evaporation rate of any of the lakes that we’ve Somewhat surprisingly, the landscape looks amazingly like systems as a postdoctoral a second, we get detailed measurements of water vapor, wind measured. Since most of these lakes have no stream outlet, all Alaska. When we go from this hot, dry environment in western researcher with the speed and CO2. In total, we’re measuring fluxes of heat, carbon the salts are left behind during the evaporation process, so you Nebraska up to northern Alaska, it’s very different in terms of its University of Wisconsin- dioxide, and water vapor, which gives us an accurate estimate get these hypersaline lakes in the Sandhills region of western climate, but strikingly similar in terms of the overall landscape Madison in 1996. Today, of evaporation out on the lake some distance from the island. Nebraska. The primary lake that we’re studying has salinity levels and shallow lakes. I’ll even use pictures of these two sites in Lenters is an associate that are two to three times that of seawater. presentations to quiz the audience on which landscape is professor with the University Our goal is to basically develop a Great Lakes evaporation Alaska and which one is Nebraska. They often stare at it for quite of Nebraska-Lincoln and network and to make the data available for research projects The water is not only salty; it’s also alkaline. So it easily eats away a while before answering, and sometimes they guess wrong – an independent contractor and operational forecasting of Great Lakes water levels. It’s at the seals of the small raft that we had out there, so the raft until I show them a picture of a cow or a caribou on top of each with LimnoTech, Inc., in grown from one or two stations to now 6 or 7, including quite a sank. But it’s a shallow lake, so the instruments stayed above the of the two landscapes. If it wasn’t for the different flora and fauna, Ann Arbor, Mich. He’s number of investigators from Canada and the U.S. water. In terms of accessing data from the site, there’s no cell you’d hardly know the difference. helped set up monitoring coverage, it’s a muddy lake, hard to get out to, and it’s usually stations on lakes across EM: You also have a project setting up observing stations in North America. lakes across Arctic Alaska. What’s going on up there? A “weather station on steroids” above a Lake Superior island Through spotty cell phone reception in Michigan’s Upper JL: Up there, it’s a very different system. As the permafrost thaws, measures the lake’s energy balance. Peninsula on his drive back from a research site on the ice-rich sediments form depressions, and they fill with water. Lake Superior, Lenters spoke with us about Great Lakes You get ponds, basically. They’re pretty shallow, but they occupy evaporation rates, losing instruments to polar bears and a large fraction of the land area. The landscape up there is 40 paddling a surfboard across hypersaline lakes in Nebraska. percent covered by either lakes or drained thaw-lake basins. So they’re a pretty dominant part of the landscape.

We just recently received funding to start a National Science Environmental Monitor: You’re on your way back from doing Foundation-funded Arctic Observing Network focused on lakes. some work on your observing station on Granite Island in Lake The AON program previously didn’t have any groups studying Superior. What are you measuring there? lakes in the Arctic, and so we proposed to establish a lake monitoring network for the Arctic. We’re calling it CALON, which John Lenters: We’re primarily interested in evaporation rates. refers to the Circumarctic Lakes Observation Network. The goal is Great Lakes water levels are impacted by precipitation, runoff, to establish an observation network in northern Alaska and use and evaporation, and while precipitation and runoff are that as our test bed. With additional funding in future years, we reasonably well measured over land, much less is known about would then expand that to include lakes in northern Canada, over-lake precipitation and evaporation. Prior to 2008, we never Siberia and elsewhere in the Arctic. actually had any direct measurements of evaporation over the Great Lakes. It’s been estimated through models since about EM: Is it a difficult place to work? 1948, but especially now with Lake Michigan-Huron having recently hit record low levels, everybody’s concerned about the JL: It’s a challenging environment to work in because the impacts of climate change on ice cover, water temperatures, weather conditions are often quite bad. It’s remote, so you have and evaporation, as well as what that all means for future lake to get to your sites by snowmachine, helicopter, or float plane. levels. The helicopter and float plane are highly dependent on weather conditions. Sometimes you simply can’t fly, so you can’t access I was fortunate enough to get in touch with the owner of your sites. We’ve had stations that were demolished by polar Granite Island back in 2007. It’s privately owned by a fellow bears, wires chewed up by Arctic foxes, and buoys destroyed by from Marquette, Michigan, and his wife. They’ve made the high winds and mobile lake ice. island available for philanthropic purposes in the past, such as research projects, lighthouse enthusiasts, and other interest EM: Is it the most difficult place you’ve worked? groups. So he was very open to the idea. JL: One of my more challenging sites has been in western We installed the monitoring station in the summer of 2009, and

Nebraska. This is a semi-arid part of the country, which makes it Lenters John Photo: it’s basically a weather station on steroids. It starts out with very somewhat ironic that there are lakes, but they’re groundwater basic instruments that measure a lot of regular meteorological fed. It’s in the Sandhills region, and the rain that lands on

36 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITOR 37 New TECHNOLOGY

ANTENNA

TACOS PROJECT COMPOSITE SPAR New Water Quality Apps Research projects have serious TENDON / HULL CONNECTION missions, and often go by complicated New mobile technology is bringing water quality monitoring into a acronyms that leave you scratching new age of accessibility. Two new apps for use with smartphone and your head. But there is one with a name INSTRUMENT CABLE tablet devices promise to make collecting water quality data easier that stands out – the TACOS project. and faster than ever before. - ADAM REDLING PULLTRUDED TENDON Scientists at the Scripps Institution of (1.25” DIAMETER) Oceanography at the University of California San Diego came up with the name, which stands for Tendon WaterQuality Charles River Anchored Composite Ocean Spar. Observer Led by Scripps scientists John Orcutt WaterQuality, an and Jon Berger, the project’s goal is app for Apple’s iOS New software is making it to design a sensor platform that can devices, is changing easier for researchers on be left in the ocean for decades with the way water Massachusetts’s Charles minimal maintenance. monitoring data is River to conduct large- cataloged. The result scale water monitoring, “If I have to rebuild a system INSTRUMENTS INSTRUMENTS of a collaboration thanks to a collaboration periodically, the cost of maintaining between Northern between a local the site will be very high,” said Orcutt, ANCHOR ANCHOR Kentucky University watershed association distinguished professor of geophysics and the Foundation and technology with Scripps. “We want to reduce for Ohio River company. life cycle costs and make it more Education, which affordable.” teamed up to The Charles River BASE improve the Watershed Association The design has a long, thin spar ANCHOR efficiency of water works to protect the made of extremely durable composite quality monitoring, river’s 308-square-mile materials that is tethered to the ocean while at the same watershed, but their floor using a tendon cable. A large time, provide a platform for learning. monitoring capabilities have been limited by antiquated water mass and small waterplane area make The TACOS design can support the a lot of options and opens up huge monitoring techniques like committing water quality records to spars very stable and a popular choice same sensors as a conventional technical and scientific advantages.” Led by Steve Kerlin, director of the NKU Center for paper. for ocean deployments. buoy design, including those for Environmental Education, a team began developing the conductivity, temperature and depth. Increased bandwidth comes from the program in the spring of 2012 after receiving a mini-grant Led by Julie Wood, senior scientist at the CRWA, the group set “A spar puts the center of buoyancy Other instruments that measure optical fiber optics running down the center from the NKU College of Education and Human Services. out to change their old ways in early 2012 by partnering with deep in the seawater, tens of meters backscatter and the sun’s radiance are of the thick tendon cable. Since WaterQuality version 1.0 was released in October 2012. Aecern, a nearby education and technology company, to down,” said Orcutt. “Because wave also easily integrated into an ocean light travels so quickly, power and begin work on developing the Charles River App. motion decays exponentially with spar system. communication signals transmit more WaterQuality allows users to create a profile for a monitoring depth, the vertical motion of the spar is efficiently. Once data from sensors are site in which they can enter chemical and bacterial monitoring The app will allow workers to chart water temperature and small.” Orcutt also says the spar platform is collected, it will be sent via C-, Ku-, and data obtained from standard monitoring equipment. The depth measurements, as well as observations, descriptions stable enough to use LIDAR, which Ka-Band satellite to the Internet. Orcutt app then provides graphs and illustrations that show healthy and photographs from various sites. Researchers can also The spar’s power will come from wave measures atmospheric backscatter notes that the data will also be backed ranges for various water quality measurables. upload information about regional wildlife and abnormal river action. With buoyancy centered deeper from particulates and water vapor up on the platform. conditions in the Charles River watershed. in the water and the spar platform more with the goal of developing a three- Users can log 11 different chemical and bacterial parameters, stable, wave energy is easier to harvest. dimensional profile of the winds The design will take about a year, Orcutt including dissolved oxygen, E.coli, pH, water temperature, The app aims to streamline the lines of communication Orcutt says wave action will create overhead. Seafloor sensors including says. He and Berger are working with nutrients, turbidity and conductivity. between volunteers and CRWA scientists, but the new enough power for the system, and seismometers, hydrophones, pressure Horton Wison Deepwater and John technology also figures to have applications inside the that he and Berger, a Scripps senior gauges and others are served by Crane Associates to further develop the WaterQuality’s developmental team is confident that the classroom as well. researcher, are looking to provide a cables running from TACOS to the new buoys. The TACOS name, however, program will help users make sense of complicated data. kilowatt of power. With technological seafloor. is one innovation that won’t need The CRWA is partnering with a local elementary school, advances, especially in electronics, further development. “We’re finding teachers and student science monitors gather a Woodside Montessori Academy, to develop an interactive communications and computing that “The spar buoy has tremendous number but don’t really understand what the number means website where students can analyze data collected with will occur through time, the system advantages to reduce pitch and roll,” “It’s an acronym that makes a lot of or if it’s in acceptable parameters,” Kerlin said. “So what it the app. The group is piloting the app with a select group of should become increasingly efficient. said Orcutt. “Having a stable platform sense,” said Orcutt. “But the name may does is allow you to log data, but also to make sense of that volunteers, but hopes the program will be widely adopted with more satellite bandwidth gives us be a bit too clever.” data.” throughout the year.

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