PELLSTON—Lakes around the world, including the Great Lakes, are experiencing dramatic temperature shifts and toxic algal blooms due to climate change.
The University of Michigan Biological Station, an 11,000-acre research and teaching campus just south of the Mackinac Bridge on Douglas Lake, has a high-tech buoy in its arsenal of equipment to study the water and help researchers forecast how ecosystems will function in the future under conditions that humans have never seen before.
It is one of only a few buoys in the Great Lakes Observing System’s (GLOS) network stationed on an inland lake, rather than one of the Great Lakes.
This week scientists at the northern Michigan field station deployed the device in Douglas Lake’s second deepest spot — a glacial kettle hole about 22 meters deep, or 72 feet, in South Fishtail Bay — to capture a full water column spectrum of data, from top to bottom.
Part of the GLOS network of smart buoys that streams live data to the GLOS website, the buoy carries a solar-powered sensor that provides real-time measurements remotely accessible to scientists and the general public — including fishermen and boaters — to help track water conditions.
The buoy has become an annual landmark in the Pellston, Mich., community, floating 24-7 in all weather conditions during the spring, summer and fall to monitor water quality and help us understand and protect our freshwater resources.
While Douglas Lake is relatively pristine, with few houses or infrastructure nearby, that’s what makes it a good site for tracking.
“The results can be inferred to be similar for background levels in other large local lakes that are more highly populated and facing greater contamination issues,” said Helen Habicht, lab manager at the U-M Biological Station.
You can see the buoy from the shore of the U-M Biological Station, where students, faculty and researchers from around the globe have studied and monitored the impact of environmental changes on northern Michigan ecosystems for 114 years.
The buoy bobbing in the bay is equipped with what is called the YSI 6600 sonde, an instrument consisting of several probes to measure various water quality parameters, including how much blue-green algae are present, water temperature, clarity, oxygen levels, turbidity and pH.
“Long-term datasets are crucial to understanding the changes that are occurring due to climate change,” Habicht said.
The U-M Biological Station has deployed the smart buoy for 13 years, but scientists and students here have been collecting lake temperature data since 1913.
In 2021 Jason Tallant, data manager and research specialist at the U-M Biological Station, coauthored a global data synthesis published in the journal Scientific Data focused on long-term temperature records in more than 150 lakes, including the Douglas Lake temperature dataset spanning from 1913 to 2014. Data were collected at 1-meter intervals in the center of the kettle hole from 0 to 24 meters.
“We collect certain basic science data as a way of continuing a long-term record started by scientists in the early days of the station,” Tallant said. “We maintain the second oldest known and longest running inland lake temperature profile dataset in the world.”
The field station in northern Michigan also holds a record of ice-out dates going back to 1931. “Ice out” means when the lake is completely free of ice.
Each year staff holds a contest to guess the spring ice-out date on Douglas Lake.
This year Karie Slavik, associate director of the U-M Biological Station, won on April 13. Ten years ago, ice-out date was April 29. Fifty years ago, March 30. In 1931, ice out was declared April 12.
"So far the trend on Douglas Lake is not as clear as what we see on the Great Lakes,” said Adam Schubel, resident biologist at the U-M Biological Station. “As an example of the variability we see here, we had one of the latest ice out dates recorded in 2018 and one of the earliest recorded in 2021. This year was close to average. That's what makes it such a riveting contest."
John Lenters, senior research specialist at the U-M Biological Station, has a long-term interest in understanding changing lake temperatures and ice cover. He is part of the field station’s terrestrial carbon program and taking a deep dive into changing winters in Michigan.
“There are ecological risks for warming lakes,” Lenters said. “For example, fish have certain thermal habitat where they like to hang out. Temperature changes could be lethal for some, impacting their abundance and distribution.”
Data from the buoy also are helpful for ongoing plastic pollution research led by Melissa Duhaime, assistant professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and an instructor of the “Microbes in the Wild” course at the U-M Biological Station. She is exploring the long-term effects of microplastics in Michigan waters.
To access buoy data, visit the GLOS website.
