Tag Archives: Ecosystem

Shrinking the Phosphorus Cycle: Lake Champlain, Phosphorus, and Time (and Patience)

This interesting article from

Anytime I hear about, read about, overhear, or talk about algae blooms in Lake Champlain an image like this one surfaces in my brain:

Shrinking the Phosphorus Cycle
from: St. Francis University (http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/ns/bromer/ecology/student1/Ecology%20Web%20Page.htm#top)

This graphic representation of the phosphorus cycle, is at the heart of water quality concerns in our Basin and a huge number of basins around the world.  If you follow the arrows which show where the essential nutrient phosphorus flows on the earth to support life as we know it.  Nearly every arrow leads to a living thing, with a few having one step in-between (like the link between the fish and the bacteria and fungi decomposers).  You can follow the arrows of flowing phosphorus for quite a while before reaching a dead end, where phosphorus no longer “feeds” some living things but actually leaves the cycle.  Where does this happen?  At the lake bottom:

Phosphorus only leaves the cycle when either dead organisms get buried in the lake bottom deep enough that decomposers (which actually lie on the lake bottom) do not break them down, or as precipitated phosphorus that settles to the bottom.
Who cares?  Why does this matter?
Getting rid of phosphorus doesn’t happen quickly and because it feeds the growth of organisms that we don’t care for, we struggle about what to do.  In other words, our desire to “clean-up the lake” depends upon changing how much phosphorus flows in the cycle.

I recently attended an informative presentation of the Lake Champlain Basin Program’s State of the Lake and Ecosystem Indicators Report by Bill Howland, the Program Manager for our partner organization.  At the outset, Mr. Howland set the stage for his talk by clarifying that the report is about the status of the lake as shown by the data chosen as indicators since the last report in 2008.  As such, he did not cover what management responses are being implemented in the Basin.  Much of the data he presented centered around phosphorus in the Lake and the Basin’s waters that feed it.  The reports section on phosphorus addresses three questions: How are phosphorous levels in Lake Champlain?  Where does the phosphorus come from?  What is being done to reduce phosphorus concentrations?  Given the media, political, environmental, and regulatory attention that phosphorus gets in our Basin, it makes a lot of sense to pay attention to phosphorus.  Despite the wealth of data about phosphorus entering the lake, its role in producing nuisance algae blooms, and the human desire to reduce the amount of phosphorus in our waterways, I rarely see the questions– “Where does phosphorus go?” and “How long will it take to get there?” — being addressed anywhere.  The answers are important, because without knowing when and how phosphorus may decline in Lake Champlain we cannot know when to see the effects of our collective efforts to “clean up the lake.”

Middlebury College’s New Lake Champlain Research Vessel is Home

 

Middlebury College’s new Lake Champlain research vessel, the RV David Folger, has completed the journey from Vancouver, British Columbia, and is now berthed at its’ new home Point Bay Marina in Charlotte, Vermont. The official dedication on October 20, 2012.

.

Why a Lake Champlain Research Vessel?

.

From: Blogs Dot Middlebury

.
Middlebury College is blessed by its proximity to Lake Champlain, a 435-square-mile lake – the sixth largest in the US. An historic waterway and the birthplace of the US Navy, the lake contains many shipwrecks. It borders Vermont, New York, and Quebec and sits at the center of the region’s ecosystems, which boast impressive biodiversity. The region also holds 34 hazardous-waste sites and 95 landfills, yet the lake is a major source of drinking water for roughly 200,000 people. Compared to the Great Lakes, however, Lake Champlain remains under-studied.

For 24 years, Middlebury College’s research vessel, the R/V Baldwin (RVB), served the College as a “floating laboratory” on Lake Champlain. This remarkable facility provided unique opportunities for faculty-student collaborative research, research training, and teaching in Geology, Biology, and Environmental Studies, but by 2009 the RVB had reached its limits. It was nearly 30 years old, was last upgraded in 1990, and couldn’t be renovated any further.

Though well equipped, the RVB was undersized and out-of-date for research and class requirements, and maintenance costs were escalating. Weight-load limits restricted the amount of gear on the vessel, which meant that equipment had to be unloaded and reloaded for most trips. Because of Lake Champlain’s length (~100 miles) and the vessel’s slow speed (6–8 knots), it often took longer than a single day to reach research sites. The RVB was unsuited for the short, choppy storm waves on Lake Champlain, so it couldn’t work on the Main Lake during rough conditions. Research access on the lake was restricted mainly to the narrow, weed-choked southern regions. The RVB’s size also restricted student access to lake research. Its maximum capacity was adequate for most summertime faculty and senior-thesis research, but during the academic year some classes had to go out multiple times to accomplish a single research “errand,” while other classes had to be split up — or couldn’t be accommodated at all.

In 2006, an external review of the Geology Department (the main user of the RVB) recommended replacing the RVB with a larger, more seaworthy vessel built to United States Coast Guard (USCG) T-boat safety specifications. A generous grant from the Lintilhac Foundation supported the planning effort. However, the cost of replacing the vessel was prohibitive, and the onset of the Great Recession shortly thereafter appeared to mean that this dream was now dead in the water. Then, in 2009, the National Science Foundation announced the Academic Research Infrastructure Recovery and Reinvestment (ARI-R2) Program, a funding opportunity backed by federal stimulus dollars. Because we had recently completed a feasibility report on replacing the RVB, the College was ideally prepared to apply for this funding, and to our delight, the NSF gave us the opportunity we had been yearning for: an award to replace the College’s aging research facility.

This new floating laboratory will be a College facility, used by all of the sciences. It will expand research opportunities for Middlebury College’s faculty and provide superior research training for its students. Middlebury is a leader in environmental and science experiential learning and field research, and the College is excited to be able to offer better lake access to faculty and students in the biological, chemical, and environmental sciences. The scope of research will be increased by gaining access to the entire lake, reducing transit times to research sites, and providing a stable, up-to-date platform for high-quality research. Improving and expanding research capabilities on Lake Champlain will generate new knowledge in several disciplines about the lake itself, the region, and freshwater lakes in general.

This project will also add a sophisticated research vessel with advanced capabilities and greater capacity to the research infrastructure on Lake Champlain, enhancing interdisciplinary inquiry not only for more Middlebury College students and faculty, but for other members of the local educational community. The new facility will:

  • enable faculty at other local colleges to give students hands-on training in research techniques that would otherwise be unavailable
  • provide research training to local K-12 teachers
  • offer outreach to “land-locked” institutions and organizations in Vermont that need lake access
  • advance development of a nautical archaeology program in the Lake Champlain basin
  • produce data with environmental benefits to the region

With this new research vessel, Middlebury College will prepare highly qualified candidates to enter professions in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Many of our students earn advanced degrees in ocean sciences, and the new facility will help Middlebury College to carry on and expand that tradition.

.

 

The Next Invasive SpeciesThreat to Lake Champlain

This report from the Albany Times-Union looks at the asian clam, an invasive species that has established itself in Lake George. Officials there fear they are losing the battle to the asian clam and discuss the impact that this will have on Lake George.

Since Lake George empties into Lake Champlain via the Lachute River in Ticonderoga, the asian clam seems destined to be the next invasive threat to Lake Champlain.

Invasive clams appear to be winning in Lake George

Lake George is now infested by a species that could reduce tourism, business activity and property values

By Brian Nearing     Updated 7:18 a.m., Monday, September 24, 2012

A map showing where on the lake Asian clams have been found is seen on a screen during a meeting of the Asian Clam task force on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 at The Lake George Association headquarters in Lake George, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) Photo: Paul Buckowski

A map showing where on the lake Asian clams have been found is seen on a screen during a meeting of the Asian Clam task force on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 at The Lake George Association headquarters in Lake George, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

LAKE GEORGE — Two years and $1.5 million later, efforts to rid the Queen of American Lakes of a harmful invasive clam seem to have failed. With fast-breeding Asian clams now spreading, the best hope is to keep their numbers in check — a costly fight that could last for years — and wait for a breakthrough eradication technique.

That was the grim assessment last week by the lake’s Asian Clam Rapid Response Task Force, a group of state, municipal, civic and environmental groups that has spearheaded work to eradicate clam beds by smothering them under weighted underwater mats.

The setback in the battle against the clams comes as the Lake George Park Commission, the state agency in charge of protecting the lake, also is racing to create a plan to reduce the risk of future aquatic invaders being brought in by recreational boaters, who likely transported the Asian clam from other infested water bodies in bilge water or bait wells. Widespread clam infestation in the lake could mean diminished tourism, business and property values. Clams have already caused some of those problems in Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border, where beds now cover several hundred acres.

Thriving in sunlit, shallow, sandy lake bottoms, the tiny mollusks pose a major threat to the lake’s legendary gin-clear waters, which drive vibrant tourism, boating and recreational fishing industries.

Large clam colonies can foul beach waters because their excretions fuel massive algae blooms. Fast-breeding hermaphrodites, clams can quickly multiply into the millions and, when dead, wash up on beaches, where their razor-sharp shells make walking dangerous.

In Lake George, two years’ use of underwater mats — as well as underwater suctioning — in four places totaling 15 acres along the lake’s southwest side from the village of Lake George near Million Dollar Beach to the town of Bolton has not wiped out the clams, which remain entrenched and in some cases are even more numerous, according to surveys done this month.

A view of some Asian clams in a container at the Lake George Association headquarters seen here on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in Lake George, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

Just this month, Asian clams were found in four new spots, including for the first time on the lake’s eastern and northern shores in Shelving Rock Bay in Fort Ann and Lake Forest in Hague, respectively. The other new clam colonies were found near the Golden Sands resort near Diamond Point and Route 9L near Paulist Fathers Road. Those combined spots total at least two acres.

“We have had disappointing results with some of our mats. Eradication of the clams now seems clearly out of the question.

It is technologically beyond our ability to eliminate it,” said Dave Wick, executive director of the park commission and a task force member, on Thursday. Lake George is the only lake in the state with its own state agency.

“We have to shift from a strategy of eradication to one of long-term management of the clam,” said Walter Lender, director of the Lake George Association, a not-for-profit group that has helped fund the work so far.

Over concerns about future invasives, the commission is considering a mandatory inspection system for the thousands of boats that are launched on the lake each summer. A plan will likely be decided upon this fall.

Wick said it would likely cost $1 million to put down mats this fall on all eight known infested locations — but the task force now has only about $140,000 available.

That will be devoted to putting mats at the four new locations, which are relatively small.

“What is at risk is the economy and the ecology of the lake, upon which the economy is based,” said Alexander Gabriels, a task force member and former Bolton town supervisor.

The town-owned Norowal Marina on Route 9N is one of the lake’s busiest public boat launches, as well as one of the original infested areas. Clams remain there in high numbers despite two years of using mats and are just 200 yards south of the town’s Veterans Beach. Norowal Marina also is directly across the lake from Shelving Rock Bay, a popular site that each summer draws hundreds of boaters for Log Bay Day.

A view looking north from the south end of Lake George on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in Lake George, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

“We have paid for this all so far with public dollars,” said Wick. “We will have to start looking at the million-dollar businesses along the lake.”

Eric Siy, director of the Fund for Lake George, another lake advocacy group, said, “We are in an all-hands-on deck, all-checkbooks-on-the-table situation.”

At the Georgian Resort in the village of Lake George, clam-smothering mats have been used for the last two years without success. The venerable 159-room resort needs a healthy lake, marketing manager Dick Carlson said.”What you don’t want in this business is negative publicity that might encourage people to stay away.”

Carlson said he understands the need to pay for invasive species control, and suggested that Warren County could set aside part of its 4 percent hotel bed tax. “We would have to look into it, but I am sure that we would be able to contribute something toward it,” he said.

Wick said the commission was rebuffed when it sought financial support from the state and the Department of Environmental Conservation. “The state does not have any money for us, at least in the next six months,” he said.

The DEC press office referred questions to Ed Woltman, head of its Bureau of Fisheries, who said he could not speak to state funding issues.

Woltman said the state favors “outreach and education” of recreational boaters on the importance of keeping boats cleaned, drained and dry.

A sign is posted on an information board near a boat launch on the south end of Lake George informs boaters to help prevent the spread of invasive species seen here on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 in Lake George, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

DEC maintains four public boat launches on the lake – at Mossy Point in Ticonderoga, Million Dollar Beach in Lake George, Rogers Rock in Hague and Northwest Bay in Bolton. Woltman said creating a network of boat-cleaning stations, which use high-pressure hot water to blast away invasives, would be logistically difficult.

In 2009, Lake Tahoe set up a mandatory boat cleaning system, partially supported by federal funds and partially by registration stickers required for boaters.Woltman said the state is concerned about future invasives and wants to see what kind of prevention plan the park commission creates.

Since 2008, volunteers from the Lake George Association have checked more than 24,000 boats being put in or being taken out of the lake, said Emily DeBolt, education director. Of those, 378 boats carried an invasive species.

“Invasive species are on the march. The state needs to pay attention to this,” said Gabriels.

bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 • @Bnearing10

Learn more about invasive species > Click here

More about the asian clam

Seiches

Seiches

Lake Champlain Seiches

photo: Minnesota Sea Grant
http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/superior/processes

Even when the lake seems dead calm, there is still a lot of movement going on. Storming along at nearly 30 miles per hour, is a surface seiche. And below that, an internal wave the length of the lake is rolling.

When you blow on a coffee or bowl of soup that is too hot, you see miniature waves build up against the far side of the container. Now take this effect and amplify it to fit a windstorm on Lake Champlain. This is how a seiche forms.

As wind blows across the surface of the water, it creates friction that drags the water with the wind. Across a lake as large as Champlain, a significant amount of water will build up at one end of the lake. When the wind stops, however, gravity takes over and the water is free to rush back. As this oscillation continues, a single standing wave is formed. On Lake Champlain this wave takes approximately 4 hours to make its trip back and forth.

Any good fisherman knows the importance of taking into account temperature and depth. The deeper the water, the colder the temperature. This change is not gradual, however. There are very distinct boundaries where it drops. These temperature layers are called thermoclines and are created by differences in the water density at varying temperatures. Cold water is denser, so it sinks. Warm water is less dense, so it sits on top of the cold.

As the seiche flows along the lake, it pushes the thermocline with it, changing the depth of the temperature boundaries. This means two things: one, the thermocline, and therefore temperatures, are always moving. And two, the variable bottom structure of Lake Champlain causes a secondary seiche to occur. As the surface seiche moves, the thermocline will run into shelves, reefs, and other objects that restrict its flow through the lake. This disturbance in the flow causes a wave within the layer of the thermocline that was obstructed. Due to the differences in water density, the denser water along the bottom pushes up against the warmer water, resulting in colder water near the surface. Gravity, of course, will push the heavier water back down, creating the wave. In Lake Champlain, the secondary seiche, which can get from 10-20 meters tall, takes approximately 4 days to complete its end-to-end journey.

What does this all mean for fisherman? Seiches can cause drastic changes in water temperatures in a very quick time. Temperature-sensitive fish are likely not going to be staying put through the fluctuations. A temperature gauge is essential to find out where the thermocline is, and where the fish are.

For more information, check out these resources.

Originally posted September 25, 2012 by Eric_LaMontagne on LCI’s ‘So You think You Know Champlain?’

New Weapon to Combat Sea Lamprey in Lake Champlain

New York State officials are very encouraged about the first results from this newest tool in the fight against Lake Champlain’s sea lamprey pests according to this article from the Glens Falls Post-Star.

This specialized boat and sprayer uses sonar to locate lamprey ammocetes, then targets them with a safer and more specific lampricide than has been used in the past; additionally treatment can be performed during windy conditions.

High-tech methods used to kill invasive lampreys

Biologists have a new weapon against a fish-killing pest in Lake Champlain, and initial results have left state officials optimistic it will greatly assist efforts to protect sport fish in the lake.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has purchased a specialized boat equipped with a sprayer that allows fisheries experts to more accurately target areas where sea lamprey young are living, said Bill Schoch, the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s regional fisheries manager.

The boat has side-scanning sonar to allow scientists to find the lamprey young, called ammocetes, the pesticide is designed to kill.

“They can find ammocetes with much better accuracy than before,” Schoch said.

The new boat can also be used in windy conditions that in the past have foiled treatment efforts, Schoch said.

“It treats faster and more accurately and can work in rougher weather,” Schoch said. “It’s a remarkable improvement.”

Calls to the Fish and Wildlife Service office in Burlington, Vt., were not returned last week.

Lampreys are voracious predators, attaching themselves to fish and boring through their scales to consume their blood and bodily fluids.

Treatments targeting them have proven effective in curtailing the population. Fish wound rates have dropped from more than 60 per 100 fish to 15 per 100 fish.

The new boat and equipment were used late last month to treat the Saranac River delta, a major lamprey breeding ground, and the result was hundreds of thousands of dead lamprey young, officials said.

The machine also allows the use of a different pesticide that targets only lampreys. A chemical called Bayluscide was used at the Saranac River delta site, when in the past a different chemical called TFM was used, which was applied by a spreader or pump.

Use of TFM has been controversial because the chemical may kill other organisms.

For now, the new computerized equipment can only be used to treat lake deltas and not tributaries, where other treatments using TFM will continue to be done, Schoch said.

In all, two deltas and five brooks are scheduled to be treated this fall, but treatments have been delayed by low water.

Mount Hope Brook in Whitehall, which feeds South Bay, is scheduled for treatment early next month, while treatment of other tributaries further north and on the Vermont side is set into late October.

Mill Brook in Essex County is the only other tributary in the region scheduled to be treated this year. The Poultney River was treated last year but will not be treated this year.

Mount Hope Brook was scheduled to be treated last year, but the water was too high in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene and other rain events.

Click Here to learn more about Lake Champlain sea lampreys