(Press release from OLA)

The Otsego Lake Association (OLA), in cooperation with SUNY Oneonta Biological

Credit: Paul Lord
Credit: Paul Lord
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Field Station (BFS) researchers, have installed an automated water quality monitoring buoy on Otsego Lake. The majority of the new system was installed by the BFS Volunteer Dive Team, lead by Paul Lord and Jim Vogler (Lecturers of Biology, SUNY Oneonta) and assisted by SUNY Oneonta undergraduates Zach Piper and Alex Sessions. Two BFS interns from Laurens Central School, Kayla Johnson and Connor Lewis March Sr., completed installation of the sensors under supervision by Kiyoko Yokota (Assistant Professor of Biology, SUNY Oneonta).

The system will continuously collect water temperature and light intensity data
at 15-minute intervals at various depths, 24/7. This data set will complement the existing biweekly manual water quality monitoring program carried out by BFS staff and enables the researchers to more closely monitor and predict biological productivity of the lake water, which is strongly influenced by temperature and light availability. The collected data are planned to be publicly available through the Global Lakes Observatory Network (GLEON, www.gleon.org).
The buoy and the anchoring system were provided by OLA, the monitoring equipment was funded by the SUNY 4E Grant, and other supplies were procured with the SUNY Oneonta Faculty Research Grant. A National Science Foundation grant proposal is pending, which, if awarded, would enable an upgrade to a fully automated system that will monitor a dozen parameters (including phytoplankton density) simultaneously, not just temperature and light.

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