Building a collaborative monitoring strategy for a changing St. Louis River Estuary
A bit about our research
After a history of contamination, the St. Louis River Estuary is being revitalized through protection, remediation, and restoration, but simultaneously faces pressing new water quality challenges. Recent shifts in algal communities, harmful algal blooms, and hypoxia in estuary “hotspots” are not well understood, leaving water stewards without critical information needed to respond. This project conducts foundational research to quantify and characterize the nutrient dynamics that lead to degraded algal communities, toxic cyanobacterial blooms, and hypoxia in the estuary. Our diverse network of organizations is building a collaborative monitoring strategy to address current and future stressors. This project will support that effort through the following: (1) a synthesis of known nutrient and algal dynamics; (2) an easily interpreted data access platform; (3) a recommendation report that specifies the location, timing, and parameters needed for a feasible and effective long-term monitoring program; and targeted (4) local and (5) national communications. The approaching delisting of the Area of Concern (AOC) creates a timely need to transition water quality monitoring efforts from “looking back” to “looking forward.” This project ensures that already engaged end-users work from a shared understanding to build a collaborative monitoring strategy that protects the restored health of the estuary.
To read the full project proposal click here.
This project is funded by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative.
Meet Our Project Team
Lake Superior Reserve
Hannah Ramage - Project Lead
Noah Pinsonnault - Technical support and boat captain
Addison Knoll - Field and Lab support
Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve
Ted Smith - Boat captain
Natural Resources and Research Institute
Euan Reavie - Collaborative and Technical Lead
Chris Filstrup - Technical Lead
Peter Birschbach - Graduate student & fieldwork coordinator
Beth Bernhardt - Laboratory technical support and quality assurance
Jerry Henneck - Field and equipment technical support
Elizabeth Alexson - Algal taxonomy support
Leah Schleppenbach - Field support
Eva Hendrickson - Field and laboratory support
December 2023 Project Update
The project team completed it's 25th sampling event on November 8th, 2023! The boats were then put away and sample collection paused. For now, while we wait for ice to thicken on the estuary, we begin the big task of compiling and analyzing data. Peter is diving into preliminary data analysis and will present at the St. Louis River Summit in March. But don't forget, we still have a winter season left to collect data. Our dissolved oxygen sensors are all deployed safely (🤞) under the ice. We hope to get out on the ice and sample at least twice this winter.
September and October were a whirlwind of algal bloom activity in the lower harbor. At Barker's Island we saw conditions grow more productive throughout September until conditions fostered a confirmed toxic algal bloom on September 21st. Two more extensive bloom events occurred in the lower harbor, the largest, on October 3rd, extended out onto Lake Superior. These blooms were largely dominated by Aphanizomenon flos-aquae.
While it is disheartening to see these extensive blooms in the harbor, we are grateful for the timing of this grant funding which allowed us to be there capturing frequent and comprehensive data. We are optimistic about what we will be able to learn from this year's blooms and how we can apply that knowledge to future monitoring.
Data Tidbits
December 2023
Measures of the pigment chlorophyll-a can tell us a lot about the differences in algal abundance among the 8 sampling sites. We will have more comprehensive understanding of the phytoplankton community differences later, but right now we can already see some vast differences in algal abundance. Check out the graph below and you may notice that only two sites have high winter values (Barker's Island and Allouez Bay) and our lower estuary sites have much higher peaks August - October than our upper and middle estuary sites. There is even more to unpack from these values which we will share at the St. Louis River Summit in March 2024.
AL = Allouez Bay, BA = Barker's Island, BI = Billing's Park, KI = Kingsbury Bay, MI = Miller Creek/WLSSD, MU = Mud Lake, NO = North Bay, PO = Pokegama Bay.
August 2023
Our Barker's Island sampling site has a water quality sonde that is logging data every 15 minutes. It is a great tool for observing how variable some water quality parameters are over the course of a day. Take a look at how much dissolved oxygen fluctuates over the course of several days at Barker's Island below. These tell-tale daily swings in dissolved oxygen indicate a high amount of photosynthetic organisms in the water. Oxygen is being produced in abundance when the sun is out during the day, and then oxygen is being taken up at night for respiration. High values of dissolved oxygen and pH are one sign that an algal bloom could be happening. That is why we are keeping our eye on the live data from Barker's Island. Take a look at live data at this link.
May 2023
We are just beginning to characterize the 8 sampling sites. The violin plots below display mean values and distributions of selected parameters at all sites from the first four sampling events (October through March). Site code key: AL = Allouez Bay, BA = Barker's Island, BI = Billings Park, KI = Kingsbury Bay, MI = Miller Creek, MU = Mud Lake, NO = North Bay, & PO = Pokegama Bay.
We are also in the very early stages of examining phytoplankton samples, with more extensive enumeration taking place after Peter's intensive identification training in June. However, a reproduction event by Aulacoseira, a common centric diatom genus, was observed in an Allouez Bay sample from 2/27/23. In the photomicrographs of the event below, the strands are colonies of glass-walled individual organisms. The round structures at the ends of some are called auxospores, zygotes formed after multiple generations of asexual reproduction that will eventually be released and form new colonies.
March 2023
When choosing "hotspot" sampling locations, one criteria was historic hypoxia. From a quick look at data from our February and March sampling events, Allouez Bay unsurprising had the lowest dissolved oxygen with a concentration of only 1.9 mg/L at the bottom of the water column. That is only 13% saturation. While this was only a spot reading, our deployed loggers will give us 15 minute interval data once retrieved in the Spring.
Where are we sampling?
After a consultation with the project's End User team, we landed on these 8 sampling sites. Initially we hoped to sample in Spirit Lake near the recently remediated US. Steel site, however, additional restoration at the site in summer 2023 made access impossible. We transitioned that sampling site to Mud Lake, which has known dissolved oxygen issues and is the site of a future Area of Concern restoration project. Spirit Lake and other sites will now be sampled as a part of the Lake Superior Reserve's SWMP sampling. We hope SWMP sampling complements this project's hotspot sampling with some less frequent longitudinal analysis of some well mixed areas of the estuary. Stay tuned!
Upcoming Dates
Project End Users are gathering again at the Lake Superior Reserve on January 23rd 2024. The goal of that meeting is to share some preliminary data and to discuss the development of estuary monitoring data portal.
August 2023 Project Update
The project team has been out sampling every week since late June. So far we have 15 sampling events under our belt! On July 11 & 12 we collaborated with Nancy Schuldt and Arianna Northbird to sample 8 estuary sites in the same way and timeframe as Fond du Lac's 5 upper St. Louis River sites. We did a bit of a crew swapping to learn more about one another's methods and water quality research.
What about harmful algal blooms? We have had a little bit of action with some small, isolated patches of blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) in the estuary. On July 12th, Kait Keinl of the Lake Superior Reserve, collected a sample from Barker's Island Swimming Beach that had benthic mats of Oscillatoria and Phormidium. Over the course of the next few days, the benthic mats became dislodged and were floating in/around our sampling site at Barker's Island. Additionally, visible colonies of Aphanizomenon were present at Barker's Island and Mud Lake after a series of sunny, calm days in August. In addition to our routine sample collection, we have collected some limited samples for toxin analysis, and will be prepared to take more if bloom-like conditions occur.
May 2023 Project Update
Since the last winter sampling event in March, the team has completed three open-water sampling events. Sampling is now biweekly through June and then weekly through October. The field team collects water samples for nutrient analysis and phytoplankton identification, multiparameter water quality sensor depth profiles, photosynthetically active radiation depth profiles, and Secchi depth measurements. We have also retrieved 6 of 8 dissolved oxygen sensor moorings that have been collecting low water column temperature and DO readings since deployment in early February at each site. Data previews coming soon!
Additionally, you may have seen the project, the estuary, and our team members in the news lately - if not, be sure to check out these two articles from WPR and Hometown Focus and this segment from Fox 21 News:
-Article by Danielle Kaeding of WPR: https://www.wpr.org/water-quality-sampling-effort-lake-superior-estuary-targets-emerging-threats-harmful-algal-blooms
-Article by Hometown Focus: https://www.hometownfocus.us/articles/st-louis-river-water-quality-project-launched-by-nrri-others/
-Fox 21 News segment on project: https://www.fox21online.com/2023/05/08/new-grant-to-increase-water-quality-monitoring-in-st-louis-river-estuary/
March 2023 Project Update
The team has already completed 3 winter sampling events on Feb 6 & 7, Feb 27 & 28, and March 22 & 24. Through a mix of sleet, sun, & snow, the field team deployed under ice dissolved oxygen sensors that will long every 15 minutes until ice off. They also collected water samples for nutrient analysis and phytoplankton identification. Now we get a break until Spring.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about our research please feel free to call or email Hannah
715-399-4088