ake Erie is the first of the Great Lakes getting connected to the internet with a series of offshore “smart” buoys.
And it’s not just for sending texts on the water.
Environmental News Network - Robots Give NOAA a Peek Under the Ice of the Great Lakes enn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from enn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As the days grow shorter and the temperatures tumble, it won't be much longer before Lake Michigan's buoys will get pulled in for the season.This winter, howeve
Robotic laboratories on the bottom of Lake Erie have revealed that the muddy sediments there release nearly as much of the nutrient phosphorus into the surrounding waters as enters the lake s central basin each year from rivers and their tributaries.
Excessive phosphorus, largely from agricultural sources, contributes to the annual summer cyanobacteria bloom that plagues Lake Erie s western basin and the central basin s annual dead zone, an oxygen-starved region that blankets several thousand square miles of lake bottom and that reduces habitat for fish and other organisms.
The release of phosphorus from Lake Erie sediments during periods of low oxygen a phenomenon known as self-fertilization or internal loading has been acknowledged since the 1970s. But the new University of Michigan-led study marks the first time the process has been monitored step by step for an entire season using lake-bottom sensors.