Physical, chemical, and biological water quality monitoring data to support detection of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, Great Lakes collected by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research since 2012

Blooms of nuisance and toxic cyanobacteria, referred to as cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cHABs), occur seasonally in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, and pose a threat to human health, affect the quality of life, and significantly degrade the ecosystem. NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), University of Michigan, started regular water quality monitoring of Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron in 2012. Since that time the monitoring effort has expanded to incorporate additional parameters and sample locations. Physical, chemical, and biological water quality data were collected during repeated sampling trips to a set of stations before, during, and after HAB events (from May - October). Data for these discrete sampling events include: Secchi disk depth, Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD), CTD specific conductivity, CTD beam attenuation, CTD beam transmission, CTD dissolved oxygen, CTD photosynthetically active radiation, turbidity, particulate microcystin, dissolved microcystin, extracted phycocyanin, extracted chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus, soluble reactive phosphorus, ammonia, nitrate + nitrite, urea, particulate organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon, chromophoric dissolved organic material absorbance at 400 nm, total suspended solids, and volatile suspended solids. The bulk water quality parameters were analyzed via established techniques and procedures for routine water quality monitoring and analysis (APHA 1992, 1998, 2017).

This research was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to support the projects “Decision Support Tools to Link Predictions to HABs and Source Water Protection”, Synthesis Observation and Response (SOAR), and Real-time Environmental Coastal Observation Network (ReCON).