Scientists Plan Real Time Analysis of Water Conditions in Lake Erie
Canadian government investing in millions worth of equipment to help gather data
Canada’s federal government is stepping up funding for programs to monitor the health of the water in the Great Lakes. Nearly 16-million dollars is being set aside for the Real-time Aquatic Ecosystem Observation Network or Raeon at the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research. Research Chair, Professor Aaron Fisk, says new equipment, to be launched in the waters of the Great Lakes, can send real-time data and help with management of ecosystems.
“You can monitor literally down to the minutes, depending on how you set up your equipment, so if we suddenly see a change in the wind direction and there’s nutrients increasing in the western basin of Lake Erie, it might be a good idea to send a boat out or send one of the gliders out and collect additional samples” – Prof. Aaron Fisk UW-GLIER
Fisk says the new equipment could prove to be a ‘game changer’ for managers of Great Lakes ecosystems. He says data collected will be shared among scientists in Canada, the U-S, and elsewhere.
Click on the audio link above to hear the entire conversation between Fisk and WDET’s Amy Miller
