Harmful algal blooms (HABs) present public health challenges for communities in Iowa and around the globe. These blooms are most closely associated with in-lake phosphorus availability. Management strategies to prevent and mitigate HABs typically focus on watershed sources of phosphorus; however, lakebed sediments also represent a pool of phosphorus that may reenter the water column and fuel HABs. In many systems, this internal phosphorus loading can maintain high, in-lake phosphorus concentrations, even if external nutrient inputs are reduced.It is known that a variable suite of chemical, physical, and biological mechanisms drives internal P loading; however, these control points are poorly understoodand quantified in shallow lakes. The objectives of this research are to (1) quantify the magnitude of gross internal phosphorus loading in shallowlakes, including variation within and among lakes; (2) identify sources of variation in internal phosphorusloading within and among lakes; and (3) evaluate the relative influences of chemical conditions and disturbance on sediment phosphorus loads. In order to meet the proposed objectives, we will build a sediment core incubation system and use it to measure gross internal phosphorus loading on cores from seven study lakes in northwestern Iowa. Replicate cores will be incubated under different oxygen and disturbance treatments to evaluate interactions among hypothesized drivers of internal loading. The results of this research will offer a quantitative understanding of internal phosphorus loading in shallowlakes. Thisis critical knowledge for the prediction and prevention of HABs.This project will additionally enhance our understanding of shallow lake biogeochemistry, offer verified methods to measure sediment phosphorus fluxes, and provide managers with another tool for lake restoration planning and evaluation.
The Economic Benefits of Mitigating Harmful Algal Blooms in Iowa
In the United States, one-third of all agricultural output depends on pollinators. Unfortunately, the populations of native and managed pollinators such as honeybees and monarch butterflies have experienced significant declines over the past decade. The loss of proper habitat that provides pollen and nectar along with changes in agriculture production practices, the use of broad-spectrum pesticides, and urbanization are among the main culprits for these declining trends. In response, many governmental and non-profit efforts have been devoted to enhance pollinator habitats. In particular, the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Pollinator Habitat Initiative provides farmers and landowners with monetary incentives to plant legume-rich forage or diverse wildflower plantings. In 2015, Iowa launched the “Monarch Highway” (I-35) to create a multi-state partnership to help promote monarch habitats, such as milkweed plants.Increasing pollinator habitats in agricultural areas is particularly relevant for the IWC because native plants that make up monarch and pollinator habitat like milkweed plants, wildflowers, and bunch grasses, have deep root systems that can reach several feet into the ground. These plants provide food and shelter for many wildlife species, including monarchs, while also helping to slow the flow of runoff and prevent contaminants from reaching our waterways. Despite these connections, few studies examine the potential co-benefits that stem from efforts to enhance pollinator habitat, which may produce water quality benefits in addition to wildlife/pollinator benefits. We propose building on the IWC-funded year 1 survey on the economic value of harmful algal bloom reduction to conduct a general public survey on the willingness to pay (WTP) for pollinator conservation and the tradeoff between water quality benefits and pollinator benefits through conservation efforts to protect and enhance habitats for monarch butterflies. In particular, we propose conducting a mixed-mode survey of 3,000 households in Iowa and neighboring states along the monarch butterfly migration path in spring/summer 2020. A key component of the survey is a set of choice experiments that mimic possible policy scenarios that vary in the acres of conservation practices, possible improvements in surface and drinking water quality, and the population and health of key pollinators like monarch butterflies. In particular, we explore how Midwest residents’ valuation varies when their hypothetical monetary contribution helps with the upstream restoration of milkweed habitat, or donation to a general pollinator protection NGO. We will also gather valuable information about residents’ knowledge of various pollinators such as butterflies, habitat species such as milkweed, and their understanding of the connections between water quality and pollinator benefits. Understanding how Midwest especially Iowa residents value pollinator conservation is an important step towards a better understanding of the co-benefits associated with conservation practices that enhance water quality, benefits that can be missed when valuation studies focus on water quality benefits alone. The survey can also examine how the exposure to monarch butterflies would affect the valuations of pollinator conservation among residents along the migration path, and how Iowa residents’ views and valuations differ from neighboring states.
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Review the 2021 policy brief based on these projects here.
Measuring Impacts of Lake Management Practices on Harmful Algal Blooms using Continuous Monitoring at the Iowa Great Lakes
The nutrient dynamics in eutrophic shallow lakes is complicated by a number of external and in-ternal ecosystem factorsthat control the timing and rates of nutrient availability. Depending on these dynamics,abundant dense-rooted aquaticplants or algal blooms commonlyform. High-value recreational lakes, such as those that comprisethe Iowa Great Lakes, experienceadditional pres-suresdue to invasive speciesand desire to ensure clear,open water conditionsfor recreational purposes.The lakes also serve as a critical drinking water source for local communities. Manage-ment of rooted aquatic plants, includingthe amount andtiming of removal can affect internal re-cycling of nutrients, which may result inconditionsamenable for development of algal blooms.Theseblooms can consist of cyanobacteria (i.e., blue-green algae),or what have become com-monly known as harmful algal blooms (HABs).During their life cycle,HABs lead to unpleasant conditions including blue-green scums on the water surface, and under someconditions HABs release toxins into the water,which present a health risk.With this researchwe propose to addressthe following question: “To what degree doin-lake management activities,designed to improve water quality and recreation at the Iowa Great Lakes,affect the occurrence of algal blooms, particularly harm-ful algal blooms due to cyanobacteria?”Recorded trends of HABs are rising in Iowa and are a major concern due to their impacts on drink-ing water supplies and human health, on recreation, and due to the danger to livestock, pets, and wildlife. A number of Iowa lakes regularly experience HABs. Some lakes,such as Green Valley Lake,experience chronic HABs throughout the summer, while others (e.g.,Lake MacBrideand Big SpiritLake)only occasionally experience blooms.Predicting when andwhere HABs will form is still poorly understood. Nevertheless, withadvances in real-time continuous monitoring, as well as recent investments in water quality monitoring buoys by the Iowa DNR and Iowa Lakeside Laboratoryinstalled on two of the Iowa Great Lakes, there is now an opportunity to investigate how management practices intended to control water quality affect the conditionsthat result in HABs. In particular, internal recycling of nutrients may be affectedby management of invasive rooted aquatic plants, such as curly-leaf pondweed. Investigating nutrient release rates from lake sediments along with trackingthe timing and extent of management activities will provide critical data to better understand the connections between lake water quality management and HABs.Ex-treme weather resulting in sediment resuspension and release of phosphorus from lake sediments may also be a factor in the formationof HABs.
Read full research findings here.
Hydro-NPOSS: A Non-Proprietary Open-Source Software for Hydrologic Data Visualization and Model Evaluation
Emerging techniques and data sources such as satellite remote sensing platforms and field observation networks have brought an unprecedented opportunity for the hydrologic community to better understand hydrologic cycle. At the same time, it has introduced challenges requiring effective tools and techniques for dissemination, visualization and analysis of the hydrologic data. Several open-source software solutions have been developed for hydrologic data visualization and analysis. Unlike their commercial counterparts, open-source software for web applications can benefit from developer contributions, user feedbacks, and further improvement. However, in most cases, the current solutions for hydrologic data have multiple dependencies on third-party software and programming languages which makes them cumbersome and time-consuming to deploy, maintain, and extend. To overcome these hurdles, we developed a non-proprietary open-source software (NPOSS) that allows users to visualize and analyze multivariate space-time hydrologic data that we call Hydro-NPOSS. Hydro-NPOSS leverages the concept of three-dimensional data cubes that allow users to query data in space, time, and variable dimension(s) which does not require a database system. Thereby, users can define data sources from local file systems and/or external data sources (e.g. online data services). This capability makes Hydro-NPOSS a flexible and portable solution where users can publish their hydrologic datasets in Open Data journals or as companion to their publications. Moreover, Hydro-NPOSS is an easy-to-deploy and interactive web solution for data visualizations where it can be used for visualizing time-series and geospatial datawith least effort and user expertise in web application development.