Current Projects

Alliance for Coastal Technologies

Alliance for Coastal Technologies

The MHL in conjunction with the university’s Cooperative Institute of Limnology and Ecosystem Research (CILER) form the Great Lakes Chapter of Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT). ACT is a NOAA-funded partnership of research institutions, resource managers, and private sector companies dedicated to fostering the development and adoption of effective and reliable sensors and platforms for coastal ocean and Great Lakes research and resource management.

ACT is committed to providing the information required to select the most appropriate tools for studying and monitoring coastal environments. To aid in the achievement of this goal, the MHL has been involved in the performance of a series of sensor verifications and demonstrations.

This year the MHL participated in the ACT Demonstration of In Situ Nutrient Analyzers. Nutrient inputs such as nitrates to coastal waters have increased rapidly in the past 50 years. These inputs can be attributed to a number of sources including fertilizer in runoff from both agricultural and urban areas, atmospheric deposition of nitrogen oxides due to fossil fuel consumption as well as effluents. Accurate assessments of nutrient loading are required to determine the impacts of these nutrients on coastal ecosystems as well as determine the efficacy of regulations and management decisions.

Four ACT partners, Chesapeake Biological Laboratories, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Alaska Sea Life Center and the University of Michigan participated in the Nutrient demonstration. Sensors from four participating manufacturers, American EcoTech, Satlantic, Wetlabs and YSI, were field deployed in marine, estuarine and freshwater environments. The MHL deployed these sensors at the mouth of the Clinton River this fall for four weeks, supplying the freshwater data. Verification reports will be available this spring.

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