Monitoring Lake Superior
Lake Superior is home to a diverse ecosystem, abundant recreation opportunities, and provides drinking water for regional communities. Since 2012, algal blooms have often appeared around the Apostle Islands and other areas along the lake’s Wisconsin shoreline, raising a lot of concern for citizens and scientists. Blue-green algae, the culprit of these blooms, is harmful to ecosystems and some species release toxins that can be harmful to anyone who uses the water.
As part of a regional, multi-partner algal-bloom monitoring network, the Burke Center regularly monitors six points along the south shore of Lake Superior. At each site, our staff uses a device to collect water quality data and grabs water samples to be processed in the laboratory. This effort is led by Burke Center Associate Director Matt Hudson.
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Our efforts aim to connect the data already being collected by the DNR and others to provide a full picture of the water quality in the nearshore areas of Lake Superior and give us more insight into the conditions that are causing these algal blooms.
