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Physical, chemical, and biological water quality monitoring data to support detection of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in western Lake Erie, collected by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research since 2012

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2025-07-03T00:00:00.000+00:00
Blooms of nuisance and toxic cyanobacteria, referred to as cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cHABs), occur annually in Lake Erie and pose a threat to human health, affect the quality of life, and significantly degrade the ecosystem. NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), University of Michigan, started regular water quality monitoring of the western basin of Lake Erie in 2012. Since that time the monitoring effort has expanded to incorporate additional parameters and sample locations. Physical, chemical, and biological water quality data were collected during repeated weekly sampling trips to a set of stations before, during, and after HAB events (from May - October). Data for these discrete sampling events include: wind speed, wave height, secchi depth, sample temperature, Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) Sonde temperature, CTD specific conductivity, CTD beam attenuation, CTD transmission, CTD dissolved oxygen, CTD photosynthetically active radiation, turbidity, particulate microcystin, dissolved microcystin, extracted phycocyanin, extracted chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus, soluble reactive phosphorus, ammonia, nitrate + nitrite, urea, particulate organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon, colored dissolved organic material absorbance at 400 nm, total suspended solids, and volatile suspended solids. The bulk water quality parameters were analyzed via established techniques and procedures for routine water quality monitoring and analysis (APHA 1992, 1998, 2017). In 2014, CIGLR deployed moored buoys to collect real-time physical, chemical, and biological water quality data during the summer season. There are now four moored buoys deployed during the open water season in western Lake Erie that collect in situ data for the following parameters, average wind speed, maximum wind speed, air temperature, barometric pressure, depth, water temperature, specific conductivity, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin, dissolved organic matter, nitrate, and phosphate.

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0187718 0190201 0190729 0194301 0194302 0209116 0254720 0276355 0292222 0293514 0303633 AIR TEMPERATURE AMMONIA (NH3) Attenuation/Transmission BAROMETRIC PRESSURE BEAM ATTENUATION COEFFICIENT biological data CHLOROPHYLL CHLOROPHYLL - EXTRACTED CHLOROPHYLL A Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) CONDUCTIVITY DEPTH - OBSERVATION DEPTH - SENSOR diatom DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER DISSOLVED OXYGEN harmful algal blooms (HABs) LIGHT TRANSMISSION NITRATE nitrate + nitrite content (concentration) NITRITE PARTICULATE ORGANIC CARBON PARTICULATE ORGANIC NITROGEN (PON) pH phosphate PHOSPHATE - SOLUBLE REACTIVE PHOTOSYNTHETIC ACTIVE RADIATION (PAR) PHYTOPLANKTON Secchi depth suspended solids TOTAL PHOSPHORUS TOXIN turbidity UREA water depth WATER TEMPERATURE WAVE HEIGHT WIND DIRECTION - AVERAGE WIND SPEED WIND SPEED - AVERAGE anemometer buoy - moored buoy CHN Analyzer CTD flow injection analyzer fluorometer meteorological sensor multi-parameter water quality sensor nutrient autoanalyzer PCR machine Secchi disk spectrophotometer thermometer turbidity sensor biological in situ laboratory analyses moored buoy moored buoys NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory University of Michigan Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory Great Lakes oceanography DOC/NOAA/OAR/GLERL > Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, OAR, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce Great Lakes Restoration Initative Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Great Lakes Restoration Initiative; US Environmental Protection Agency EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS > WIND DIRECTION EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC WINDS > SURFACE WINDS > WIND SPEED EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > PLANTS > MICROALGAE > DIATOMS EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > PROTISTS > PLANKTON > PHYTOPLANKTON EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > BATHYMETRY/SEAFLOOR TOPOGRAPHY > WATER DEPTH EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > AMMONIA EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > CHLOROPHYLL EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITRATE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITRITE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITROGEN EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > ORGANIC CARBON EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > ORGANIC MATTER EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > OXYGEN EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > PH EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > PHOSPHATE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > SUSPENDED SOLIDS EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS > ATTENUATION/TRANSMISSION EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS > PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY ACTIVE RADIATION EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS > SECCHI DEPTH EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS > TURBIDITY EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN TEMPERATURE > WATER TEMPERATURE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN WAVES > WAVE HEIGHT EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > SALINITY/DENSITY > CONDUCTIVITY EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > WATER QUALITY > ALGAL BLOOMS > HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM (HABs) BEAM ATTENUATION CHLOROPHYLL A - extracted Total cyanobacteria genes bluegreen colored dissolved organic material absorbance at 400 nm colored dissolved organic material absorbance at 400nm colored dissolved organic matter cryptophyta datetime depth diatoms dissolved microcystin extracted phycocyanin fluorescent dissolved organic matter green_algae mcyE genes measurement_numb nitrate + nitrite content organic dissolved oxygen organic dissolved oxygen saturation particulate microcystin particulate mycrocystin particulate mycrosystin phycocyanin phycoerythrin sample depth sample depth (category) soluble reactive phosphorus specific conductivity total dissolved phosphorus total suspended solids total_concentration transmission volatile suspended solids wind speed - maximum yellow_substances ANEMOMETERS > ANEMOMETERS AUTOANALYZER > AUTOANALYZER CHN ANALYZERS > Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen Analyzers CTD > Conductivity, Temperature, Depth FIA > FLOW INJECTION ANALYSIS FLUOROMETERS > FLUOROMETERS OPTSPEC > Optical Spectrometer SECCHI DISKS > SECCHI DISKS THERMOMETERS > THERMOMETERS TURBIDITY METERS > TURBIDITY METERS Abraxis ELISA kit Airmar WS-200WX Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 6 Flex real-time qPCR machine Carlo Erba Instruments NA 1500 NCS with PeakSimple Chromatography Data System SRI Model 202 Carlo-Erba model 1110 CHN Elemental Analyzer Hach 2100AN Turbidimeter Perkin Elmer UV/VIS spectrophotometer Lambda 35 SBE 19plus V2 SeaCAT Profiler CTD Seabird/Wetlabs CycleP Seal QuAAtro or Seal AA3 Shimadzu TOC-5000 Total Organic Carbon Analyzer Turner C6 Turner Designs 10-AU Fluorometer Turner Designs Aquafluor 8000-010 YSI EXO2 bbe Moldaenke FluoroProbe moored buoy small boat BUOYS SMALL BOAT CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > CANADA > GREAT LAKES, CANADA CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > GREAT LAKES Lake Erie Lake Erie 0LT4BP 0UU83X 3J2J2H AB7TCR DH8G1A KBW7RY KG1GJR M82XA2 PBUN2P RG36KX RWYE6D

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