The State of Our Lake: Why Your Efforts are Important

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The State of Our LakeWhy Your Efforts are
Important

• Dr. Jeffrey M. Reutter, Director
• Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory
• The Ohio State University
• Prepared for
• Cleveland Botanical Garden
• 2 February 2008, Cleveland, Ohio

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Todays Talk

• Great Lakes and Lake Erie 101
• Background on 6 key issues causing huge changes
  in Lake Erie.
• Climate Change/Lake Levels/Severe Storms
• Sedimentation/Water Clarity
• Nutrients and Phosphorus
• HABsHarmful Algal Blooms
• Dead Zone
• AISAquatic Invasive Species

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Anticipated Impacts

• Increased sedimentationlower water clarity (also
  means reduced coastal property values)
• Lower Lake Levels
• More nutrientsalgal mats, flies, HABs and toxins
• AISnew one every 8 months
• Dead Zonebigger and longer lasting
• Water treatment costs will increase
• Lake Erie will continue to be the most important
  lake in the world

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Anything you do to reduce runoff during storms
and reduce nutrient and sediment loading will
help.
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Lake Erie Cross Section
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Percent of Basin
Forest / Agriculture / Residential /Other
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As a Result, Lake Erie Gets

• More sediment
• More nutrients (fertilizers and sewage)
• More pesticides
• The above 3 items are exacerbated by storms
• And is still biologically, the most productive of
  the Great Lakes

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Lake Erie Stats

• Drinking water for 11 million people
• Over 20 power plants
• 300 marinas in Ohio alone
• Walleye Capital of the World
• 40 of all Great Lakes charter boats
• 1 billion sport fishery
• Largest freshwater commercial fishery in the
  world

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Historical Trends Population and Land Use in the
Lake Erie Region

• 1800-1880 Frontier development and natural
  resource-based production
• 1880-1950s Industrialization and urbanization
• 1960s-current Urban decentralization and the
  lake as an amenity

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Commercial Fishing on Lake Erie

• 1820 Commercial fishing begins to take off
• 1880s Commercial fishing hey-day
• By 1900, fisheries began decline due to
  overfishing and contamination

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Agriculture, Canals and Population Migration

• Clearing and draining land for agriculture left
  only 50 of the wetlands in the Lake Erie basin
  by 1870.
• Canal building began in the 1820s.
• By the mid-1800s, most of the areas in the Lake
  Erie basin where farming was possible were
  settled.

Source USDA
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Rise of Industrialization

• Commercial trade began with grain, then lumber,
  then coalby the end of the 1880s, iron ore was
  the dominant trade on the Great Lakes.

• By 1880, iron and steel represented 20 of
  Clevelands manufactured goods.
• By 1900, Cleveland was the center of the American
  oil refining industry.

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Ohio Lake Erie County Population, 1900 - 2000
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Cleveland Population, 1840-1950
7th largest city
5th largest city
7th largest city
15th largest city
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Urban DecentralizationCity of Cleveland
Population, 1940-2000
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Historical TrendsThe Lake Erie Ecosystem

• Getting worse annually to 1970
• Stable 1970-75
• Improving 1975-1990 or 1995
• 1995 Getting worse

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Sedimentation

• Reduced water quality
• Nutrients and contaminants attached to sediment
  particles
• Can trace Maumee River sediments from open lake
  disposal to Fairport

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Nutrients and Phosphorus
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Blue-green Algae Bloomcirca 1970, Lake Erie
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• I heard Lake Erie is the place fish go to die.
• --Johnny Carson, 1976

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Phosphorus Loading

• Limiting nutrient for plant growth
• 29,000 tons in 1969
• Hit 11,000 target by mid-80s
• Became Walleye Capital of the World
• Soluble form increasing since 1995

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Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus
Source P. Richards, Heidelberg College
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Why is Phosphorus increasing?

• Non-point runoff and CSOsYes
• Tributary LoadingYES, but why?
• AISQuagga MusselsYes
• Orthophosphate in drinking waterYes
• Bioturbation by MayfliesYes

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Impacts of Increased Phosphorus Concentrations

• HABs
• Microcystis
• Microcystin levels 60 times WHO
• Cylindrospermopsis
• Nuisance Algae Blooms
• LyngbyaWestern Basin Attached
• CladophoraWhole Lake Attached
• Dead Zone

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HABs(Harmful Algal Blooms)Western Basin Problem
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Blue-green Algae Bloomcirca 1970, Lake Erie
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HAB Requirements

• Warm water (summer problem)
• High phosphorus levels
• Zebra/quagga mussels (remove competition)

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HABsWestern Basin ProblemBut Contribute to
Oxygen Demand inthe Central Basin, i.e.the
Dead Zone
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Dead ZoneCentral Basin Problem
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Lake Erie Cross Section
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The Dead ZoneAnoxic Hypolimnion
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Central Basin with Thermocline
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Wind Tilting Thermocline
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Nutrients and organic material in sewer
discharges and CSOs contribute directly to HABs
and the Dead Zone, but it is highly likely that
non-point loading from agriculture is the
predominant factor!
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NEORSD efforts to prevent/reduce CSOs will reduce
the Dead Zone and beach closings!
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Global warming and climate change are real and
will make these problems worse!

• Warm water favors HABs
• Warm water increases oxygen depletion rates
• Lower water levels make it easier to resuspend
  and transport bottom sediments
• More severe storms will resuspend more sediment
  and increase erosion and sediment loading
• Lake levels will go down

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Aquatic Invasive Species
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AIS

• Over 180 species in Great Lakes
• 75 since Seaway opened
• Zebra and quagga mussels
• Phragmites and loosestrife
• Round gobies
• Next?
• How do we close the door?

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Zebra Mussel vs Quagga Mussel
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Because Lake Erie is the southernmost,
shallowest, warmest, and most nutrient-enriched
of the Great Lakes, it is likely that AIS will
always present the greatest problem, and have the
greatest impact, in Lake Erie.
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1974Before Zebra Mussels
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1994After Zebra Mussels
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Anticipated Impacts

• Increased sedimentationlower water clarity (also
  means reduced coastal property values)
• Lower Lake Levels
• More nutrientsalgal mats, flies, HABs and toxins
• AISnew one every 8 months
• Dead Zonebigger and longer lasting
• Water treatment costs will increase
• Lake Erie will continue to be the most important
  lake in the world

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Recommendations

• Targets/Goals for Lake Managers
• Elimination of beach closures and improve water
  quality
• CSO reductions will help
• Everything else will likely be worse for Water
  Quality
• Elimination of Dead Zone
• Important drinking water issues
• May not be possible
• Elimination of HABs
• Very important to human health
• Can be achieved
• Will also improve Dead Zone and beaches

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You efforts to reduce runoff during storms and
reduce nutrient and sediment loading will help.
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For more information

• Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab
• Ohio State Univ.
• 1314 Kinnear Rd.
• Col, Oh 43212
• 614-292-8949
• Reutter.1_at_osu.edu
• www.ohioseagrant.osu.edu/

• Stone Laboratory
• Ohio State Univ.
• Box 119
• Put-in-Bay, O 43456
• 614-247-6500