Sentinel for a Great Lakes Estuary

Dear Everyone,

We are out tending the Muskegon Lake Observatory buoy (MLO).  Muskegon Lake is an urbanized Great Lakes estuary connecting Michigan’s 2nd largest watershed to Lake Michigan, the 2nd largest Laurentian Great Lake.  MLO provides time-series weather, water quality and water circulation data from multiple depths, and is on its 6th year of deployment.  Over the years, MLO has been revealing stunning time-lapse details of underwater phenomena such as mixing, stratification, hypoxia and cyanobacterial blooms in this dynamic coastal ecosystem.  MLO data are freely available on the buoy website (www.gvsu.edu/buoy/). 

Bopi Biddanda, Anthony Weinke, and Scott Kendall  Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State Universitywww.gvsu.edu/wri/