[Past Projects]
Dr. Francisco Moore and Lamalani Siverts
Lake Erie regularly experiences harmful algal blooms that can be toxic due to cyanobacteria domination. The cyanobacteria thrive on nutrient runoff from agriculture and warmer global temperatures. Zebra and Quagga mussels are invasive species in North America and act as ecosystem engineers. This study will use stable isotopes to track the aquatic food web before, during, and after the harmful algal bloom season to examine how mussels impact phytoplankton trophic levels. Spend your summer on a boat and learn how to obtain aquatic field samples, process the samples, and analyze the data.