OWRC Carbon and HABs

In this Ohio Water Resources Council funded collaboartion between the labs of Rachel Gabor at Ohio State University and Rachel Eveleth at Oberlin College, the seasonal succession of inorganic and organic carbon and their drivers in the Western Basin of Lake Erie was assessed. Three surveys from the mouth of the Maumee River to the Bass Islands were completed in June (R/V Erie Monitor), August (R/V Erie Monitor) and October (R/V Gibraltar III) of 2022. Particulate and dissolved organic carbon, alkalinity, pH, and dissolved inorganic carbon were measured along with temperature, conductivity, chlorophyll, oxygen, nutrients, fluorescence and Microcystin. 

All sample bottles triple rinsed and stored under appropriate conditions for analysis. Alkalinity- pH probe calibration was performed daily and standards run every 25 samples were within 5% of expected. TOC/DOC- a 6 point calbration curve and run check standards (high and low concentration) every 8 samples and blanks are run throughout. YSI- oxgyen and pH calibration completed prior to each use. Fluorescence and UV-Vis- standard instrument checks before each set of samples and then applied instrument corrections, raman-noramlize and blank subtract. FluoroProbe- recorded and averaged five stable measurements and data was normalized by the measured Chl-a concentrations. Nutrients- All analyzer runs (dissolved and total) had 8 non-zero standards and a zero concentration standard, and runs were only accepted if the R2 was >0.999.