GLIER gets $1M grant to study algal blooms
University of Windsor researchers have received more than $1 million to collect data and lay the groundwork for establishing an early-warning system to protect water treatment systems in Southwestern Ontario and potentially around the globe.
The data pulled from Lake Erie will help scientists better understand and predict development of harmful algal blooms that can compromise drinking water in the region.
The university received a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and several industry partners. The grant will fund field work and research for three years as it oversees the deployment of real-time continuous monitoring instruments in Lake Erie.
Seven monitoring buoys provided by the Real-time Aquatic Ecosystem
Observation Network will be deployed in Lake Erie around the two intakes for the Union Water Supply System near Leamington. Union Water Supply serves four municipalities in Essex County and one of the largest concentrations of greenhouses in North America.
Real-time data will allow scientists to better understand how nutrients, temperature and other factors lead to the development of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia — oxygen-depleted water.
Real-time sensors are considered a game changer because they could allow scientists to accurately identify what is causing the blooms and use that information to predict when and where they are going to happen.
Aaron Fisk, the project lead and a professor with the local university's Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, said the buoys, along with 50 smaller aquatic sensors, will be launched in April and remain in the water until November or December depending on ice conditions.
“There are big issues with harmful algal blooms,” he said. “They can really compromise water systems.”
Once in the system, algal blooms can cause processes to break down and lead to service interruptions.
The driving forces behind algal blooms — phosphorus, nitrates, water temperature and wind speed — can change in short order.
Monitoring conditions around the clock will allow researchers to instantly analyze data and “develop a system for protecting our water,” Fisk said.
Real-time data will be sent to cellphones and lab computers.
A team led by Rupp Carriveau, a civil and environmental engineering professor and director of the university's Environmental Energy Institute, will develop emergency management scenarios.
Designing treatment systems
that rapidly react to the early bloom warnings is something that hasn't been done, according to Fisk.
The information will also help identify other possible climate change triggers that lead to harmful algal blooms, such as proliferation of algal species that are more resistant to higher temperatures.
Harmful algal blooms are a growing and significant problem for water security in Canada and the world, Fisk said.
“We're starting to see them in every Great Lake. Things are changing rapidly, that's why it's so, so valuable to have instruments monitoring continuously,” Fisk said.
In addition to the real-time buoys, university researchers will deploy a Slocum glider — a torpedo-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle — that collects data farther out on the lake.
The project also involves researchers from Trent University, Queen's University and the University of Toronto. It marks the first time the buoys have been used for extensive freshwater research. Fisk said they were developed to aid the salmon industry.