Researchers placed vertical profilers on the lake earlier this summer to measure nutrient levels on Chautauqua Lake before, during and after harmful algal blooms appear. There have been noticeable blooms on the lake for a few weeks, with The Jefferson Project’s work on the lake is a collaboration with Chautauqua Institution and the Chautauqua Lake Watershed and Management Alliance.

The vertical profilers were placed back in July, but the research began back in 2020. Randall Perry, executive director of the Chautauqua Lake Watershed and Management Alliance commended the team for their continued research.

Perry said there are also researchers from the State University at Fredonia, Bowling Green State University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and SUNY Oneonta working on the lake this summer. Additionally, there are local residents, students and volunteers who help collect additional data from the lake to aid the research teams.

“The alliance commends the work of Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua County, and the team of supremely talented scientists and engineers from The Jefferson Project engaged in the critical mission of increasing our community’s collective understanding of lake, watershed, and Harmful Algal Bloom dynamics,” Perry said. “It has been extremely heartening to observe this partnership grow from its initiation on Chautauqua Lake in 2020 to where it stands today. We have already come a long way together, but our path towards a more complete understanding, and ultimately solutions, is just beginning.”

The official boat launch of the vertical profilers. Submitted Photo (Dave Munch/Chautauqua Institution)

Tobias Shepherd, project manager at Chautauqua Institution, helps to facilitate the research in Chautauqua Lake. Shepherd is in his first season as the institution’s lake project manager. The research being done with the vertical profilers is in order for the Jefferson Project to discover why HABs occur in the lake and find a way to reduce them in the future. Other researchers are monitoring lake temperatures and sampling throughout the lake to try to find areas of the lake that need more attention than others.

“Vertical profilers are essentially floating supercomputers,” Shepherd said. “They monitor water quality in the lake by moving a sonde with multiple sensors through the water column, from the lake surface to near lake bottom, thus the name ‘vertical profiler’. The sensors measure several aspects of water quality, including temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and chlorophyll. There is also a weather station on each profiler, which allows the researchers to track and understand any potential impacts of weather on water quality. The vertical profilers are in the same location as they were last year, in order to get consistency in the data they are collecting.”

Chautauqua Lake exhibits several factors that make the lake susceptible to harmful algal blooms, includng elevated phosphorus concentrations from sources such as wastewater treatment plants, septic systems and fertilizer runoff from farms and yards. Internal loading of phosphorus from in-lake sediments has also been recognized as a problem by the state DEC. Other possible causes include nutrients running into the lake from the surrounding watershed and stormwater runoff and failing septic systems.

While those factors are known, the researchers’ data will help direct future algal bloom prevention efforts.

“There are two vertical profilers in the lake, one in the north basin and one in the south,” Shepherd said. “They went in the water about four weeks ago. They’ve been collecting data that will be helpful to our understanding of the lake’s ecology. Last week, Jefferson Project researchers also started taking additional water samples from various locations around the lake. These samples will provide additional opportunities for the Jefferson Project to analyze water quality in the lake, particularly nutrient content.”

The research is set to continue long after most boaters and lakeside tourists have left Chautauqua Lake.

“We expect the vertical profilers will come out of the lake in November,” Shepherd said. “The Jefferson Project will keep this equipment in the water as long as possible, but needs to make sure they are removed before any ice forms on the lake. The vertical profilers will return to the lake next year to continue gathering data, likely in the spring after the ice melts.”

Shepherd added that the research continuing is a very good thing.

“It is extremely encouraging that the Jefferson Project is continuing its research on Chautauqua Lake, building our community’s collective understanding of Chautauqua Lake dynamics, with the ultimate goal of finding solutions to the ecological challenges the lake is facing,” Shepherd said.