Water quality in the St. Louis River Area of Concern, Lake Superior: Historical and current conditions and delisting implications

Bellinger, Brent J.; Hoffman, Joel C.; Angradi, Ted R.; Bolgrien, David W.; Starry, Matthew A.; Elonen, Colleen M.; Jicha, Terri M.; Lehto, La Rae P.; Seifert-Monson, Lindsey R.; Pearson, Mark S.; Anderson, Leroy E.; Hill, Brian H.

doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2015.11.008

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The surrounding region is home to roughly 45% the total population within the lake's watershed and includes the port cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, which are located within the natural harbor formed by the estuary of the St. Louis River. Development of the ports resulted in water quality declines in the estuary and adjacent waters of Lake Superior during the early and mid 20 th century (Bellinger et al ). Besides the St Louis River estuary, the western arm also includes numerous embayments and coastal wetlands that provide nursery habitat for a variety of fish species (Trebitz et al ).…”

Section: Setting and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wind‐driven formation of cross‐shelf sediment plumes in a large lake

McKinney

Austin

Fai

2019

Limnology & Oceanography

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Wind-driven turbidity plumes frequently occur in the western arm of Lake Superior and may represent a significant cross-shelf transport mechanism for sediment, nutrient, and biota. Here, we characterize a plume that formed in late April 2016 using observations from in situ sensors and remote sensing imagery, and estimate the volume of cross-shelf transport using both the observations and an idealized analytical model of plume formation. The steady-state, barotropic model is used to determine a relationship between the intensity and duration of a wind event and the volume of water transported from nearshore to offshore during the event. The model transport is the result of nearshore flow in the direction of the wind and a pressure-gradient-driven counter flow in the deeper offshore waters, consistent with observations. The volume of offshore transport associated with the 2016 plume is estimated by both methods to have been on the order of 10 10 m 3 . Analysis of similar events from 2008 to 2016 shows a strong relationship between specific wind impulse and plume volume. Differences in the intensity and duration of individual events as well as ice cover, which prevents plume formation, lead to interannual variability of offshore transport ranging over an order of magnitude and illustrates how wind-driven processes may contribute to interannual variability of ecosystem functioning.

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Section: Setting and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wind‐driven formation of cross‐shelf sediment plumes in a large lake

McKinney

Austin

Fai

2019

Limnology & Oceanography

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“…The St. Louis River estuary holds by far the largest and most-established Dreissena population in Lake Superior, with documented June through September veliger production (TenEyck 2014), and water quality conditions adequate to support them. Compared to APIS, the St. Louis River estuary has approximately 5-fold higher growing-season TP and CHL-a (Bellinger et al 2016) and Ca ++ mostly in the 15 to 25 mg/L range (Bellinger et al unpublished). If the St. Louis River estuary is indeed a veliger source to APIS waters, this low-density (by the time they reach the islands) propagule pressure may have been present for two decades but not been noticed due to lack of targeted sampling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Temperature and pH were measured at 1m below the surface and 2 m above the bottom with a Hydrolab sonde (discrete depths) or a SeaBird profiler (from which depth-specific data were later extracted). Water samples for laboratory analysis were obtained from 2m above the bottom and later analyzed according to methods summarized in Bellinger et al (2016). We chose to obtain near-bottom rather than surface-water samples to represent the layer in which Dreissena would settle, and collected a single "shared" water sample for some clustered sites to reduce field processing time (Table 1 and Fig.…”

Section: Other Environmental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreissena veligers in western Lake Superior – Inference from new low-density detection

Trebitz¹,

Hatzenbuhler

Hoffman

et al. 2019

Journal of Great Lakes Research

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The notion that Lake Superior proper is inhospitable to dreissenid mussel survival has been challenged by recent finds on shipwrecks and rocky reefs in the Apostle Islands region. Motivated by concerns surrounding these finds, we conducted an intensive sampling campaign of Apostle Islands waters in 2017 to understand Dreissena prevalence and distribution. The 100-site effort combined random and targeted sites and collected zooplankton, benthos, video, environmental DNA, and supporting water quality data. We did not find settled Dreissena in any video footage or benthos samples, and quantitative PCR applied to eDNA samples was negative for Dreissena. Dreissena veligers were found in almost half the zooplankton samples but at orders of magnitude lower densities than reported from other Laurentian Great Lakes. Veligers were most prevalent around the western islands and associated with shallower depths and slightly higher phosphorus and chlorophyll, but did not spatially match known (still very localized) settled Dreissena colonies. This is the first study to conduct veliger-targeted sampling in western Lake Superior and the first to report consistent detection of veligers there. We speculate that these Apostle Islands veligers are not a new locally-spawned component of the zooplankton community, but instead are transported from an established population in the St. Louis River estuary (~100 km away) by longshore currents; i.e., low-density propagule pressure that may have been present for years. Small-mesh zooplankton data collected along a gradient from the Apostle Islands to the St. Louis River estuary and enumerated with thorough veliger searching would help elucidate these alternatives.

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“…However, the nutrition parameters still have a negative correlation with land use, and present a positive correlation with the existence of water diversion. The results are possibly caused by the overly-high river input [48] and artificial input [49] in the study area. In addition, agricultural water use and large amounts of rainfall both play important roles in dilution [50].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical Assessment of Water Quality Issues in Hongze Lake, China, Related to the Operation of a Water Diversion Project

Dai

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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Abstract:The Hongze Lake serves as the first important transfer and storage path along the East Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP-ER). After the Project began operating in 2013, eutrophication in the lake has created increasing public concern regarding the direct effect on water quality from the project. In this paper, we used multivariate statistical methods to examine the variances between water quality variables at four site groups (inlets and outlets in the study area) and during three seasons (wet, normal, and dry seasons) in Eastern Hongze Lake. We also used redundancy analysis (RDA) to analyze environmental factors' impact on water quality. We found that (1) the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus were exceeding the standard values; (2) No significant spatial heterogeneity regarding nitrogen and phosphorus among the inlet/outlet of Eastern Hongze Lake existed in normal and wet seasons, and there was no evidence demonstrating that SNWDP-ER could improve eutrophication or even contribute to eutrophication in the dry season; (3) Environmental factors (land use, water diversion, and population) have limited influences on water quality, which was possibly caused by the overly-high river input and artificial input of nitrogen and phosphorus. Thus, it is critical to reinforce the control of pollution sources and enhance the ecological restoration.

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Water quality in the St. Louis River Area of Concern, Lake Superior: Historical and current conditions and delisting implications

Cited by 23 publications

References 25 publications

The wind‐driven formation of cross‐shelf sediment plumes in a large lake

The wind‐driven formation of cross‐shelf sediment plumes in a large lake

Dreissena veligers in western Lake Superior – Inference from new low-density detection

Statistical Assessment of Water Quality Issues in Hongze Lake, China, Related to the Operation of a Water Diversion Project

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