About the Project

The St. Louis River Estuary, located at the headwaters of Lake Superior, has undergone extensive remediation and restoration following more than a century of pollution and habitat degradation. As the estuary approaches its anticipated delisting as a Great Lakes Area of Concern by 2030, new environmental stressors are raising concerns about its long-term health. In particular, cyanobacteria blooms, or harmful algal blooms (HABs), have emerged as a growing threat. This project was developed to better understand these challenges and to create a collaborative, science-based monitoring strategy for the estuary. The project findings revealed that environmental conditions, especially nitrogen concentrations affected by hydrologic conditions, strongly influence bloom dynamics, including bloom timing and composition.

About this Resource

Project lead Hannah Ramage and project team members give an introduction to "Building a Collaborative Water Quality Monitoring Strategy for a Changing St. Louis River Estuary," a collaborative research project funded in 2022 by the NERRS Science Collaborative.