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NOAA05-R508

Contact Jana Goldman **FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

\(301\) 713-2483 April 25, 2005

Jana.Goldman@noaa.gov

**NOAA GREAT LAKES LAB ON MISSION TO LAKE ERIE DEAD ZONE**

NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in
collaboration with researchers in the U.S. and Canada will lead one of
the largest, most comprehensive Lake Erie research field programs. The
two-year project, entitled International Field Years on Lake Erie
(IFYLE), starts this week and includes a series of ship cruises
involving up to 10 research vessels, as well as field and laboratory
work. Fourteen observation moorings will be deployed in the lake to
continuously collect data. The project will continue through
mid-October.

"It is important to focus our research to provide scientific knowledge
and expertise to guide management and protection efforts of Lake Erie,"
said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., under
secretary for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "This
comprehensive look will help us protect and better manage this great
lake."

Research will be conducted in Lake Erie's three basins: western, central
and eastern. Researchers will try to understand better the impact of
Lake Erie's "dead zone" -- an area of low oxygen in the lake's central
basin during late summer/early fall---on the food web in this region,
including fish. Ship cruises of 14-23 days per month will be subdivided
into multiple legs, with different teams of scientists collecting
different data each time.

"Since Lake Erie is the most heavily impacted of the Great Lakes, it
posed the most critical subject for the lake-wide scope of the study,"
said Dr. Stephen Brandt, director of GLERL, located in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"Much of what we learn in this study can be applied to solve problems
elsewhere in the Great Lakes as well."

The whole-lake research effort will focus primarily on effects of oxygen
depletion (hypoxia/anoxia) on food-web interactions and fish production
in the central basin, as well as the causes of harmful algal blooms in
the west basin.

"The study is unique in that it will assess the impact of reduced Lake
Erie dissolved oxygen levels on food web dynamics and corresponding
ecological consequences, including impact of fish stock abundance and
production," said Dr. Stuart Ludsin, a GLERL scientist coordinating the
study.

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Study participants are seeking to:

1.  Develop models to characterize and understand the magnitude, timing
    and extent of hypoxia in central Lake Erie;

2.  Amass ample scientific understanding needed to build ecological
    forecasting tools for management and refine them to describe/predict
    habitat fields;

3.  Assess the impacts of invasive species on the efficiency and
    function of current food webs that might impact fisheries production
    and native species biodiversity;

4.  Describe food-web dynamics and spatial coupling of food webs in Lake
    Erie's west, central, and east basins, including how interactions
    have been altered by exotic species or other perturbations to the
    system;

5.  Determine if and how central basin hypoxia during late summer
    influences the distribution and productivity of both native and
    invasive species across all trophic levels; and

6.  Quantify sediment-water exchange of mass, nutrients and carbon
    through sediment accumulation, resuspension, and transport
    measurements and modeling

"The development of ecological forecasting capabilities, as well as
deployment of a real-time observing system network across Lake Erie, are
right in step with NOAA's strategic goals and we are eager to use such
new approaches and technology to gain valuable insight into the dynamics
of the Lake Erie ecosystem," said Brandt.

Two major partners in the effort are the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National
Program Office and the National Sea Grant College Program. More than 15
universities from seven states and Canada are involved. Other partners
include the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, Ohio Sea Grant, New York
Sea Grant, Pennsylvania Sea Grant, Environment Canada (Canadian Centre
for Inland Waters), Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, International
Joint Commission Council of Great Lakes Research Managers, Ohio
Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Department of Natural
Resources, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation, and U.S. Geological Survey.
Ludsin said that the project will work closely with the Lake Erie
Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) and the Lake Erie Millennium Group.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to
enhancing economic security and national safety through research to
better understand atmospheric and climate variability and to manage
wisely our nation\'s coastal and marine resources.

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