This 5-year, $5.4 million, multi-university study, funded by NSF-NOAA, seeks to explore the role of thermal fronts and longshore currents in mediating the transport of chemically- and biologically-important materials across the coastal margin of Lake Superior. Applied here as a freshwater analogue to coastal ocean processes, the effort explores the fate of materials discharged to (watershed inputs) and generated within (primary and secondary production) the lake's nearshore waters and the importance of those materials in driving ecosystem dynamics in pelagic regions.

Students in our group are working to characterize horizontal and vertical patterns in bacterioplankton and phytoplankton standing crop, community structure and production in the lake. They are attempting to relate those signals to physical (e.g. thermal fronts, longshore currents, vertical stratification, upwelling), chemical (nutrient availability), and biological (microbial loop) forcing conditions. The program is presently entering its third year of field work and laboratory experimentation, applying sophisticated techniques (e.g. radioisotopes, molecular probes, and fluorescence microscopy) to examine interactions between the microbial community and its environment.

A companion study in our group seeks to quantify material loadings to the Lake Superior nearshore off of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. A student is working to calculate tributary loads of total suspended solids, dissolved organic carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen and to track the fate of those loads using a mathematical model of the nearshore region. This work seeks to evaluate the importance of the timing of spring runoff events and thermal bar formation in determining the potential for trapping watershed inputs in the nearshore.

Opportunities remain for involvement in this project at both the M.S. and Ph.D. level. Specifically, we seek to add students to carry on field and laboratory work with the plankton and to develop a mathematical model of carbon cycling in the lake. More information on the KITES project is available at:

http://chmac2.chem.mtu.edu/KITES/

Products

Gatzke, T.L., Auer, M.T., and O.P. Mills. 1998.  Riverine Suspended Particle and Coastal Particle Analysis Using SEM.  Poster presented by T.L. Gatzke at the 21st Midwest Environmental Chemistry Workshop, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Elenbaas, K.D., Snopek, M.L., and M.T. Auer. 1999. Mass Transport Mediation of Bacterioplankton Distributions in Lake Superior.  Presented by K.D. Elenbaas at the 42nd Conference on Great Lakes Research, International Association of Great Lakes Research, Cleveland, Ohio.

Auer, M.T., Snopek, M.L., and K.D. Elenbaas. 1999. Gradients in Bacterioplankton Standing Crop, Community Structure, and Production in Lake Superior in Relation to the Thermal Bar.  Presented by M.T. Auer at the 1999 Aquatic Sciences Meeting, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Elenbaas, K.D., Heppelmann, L.A., and M.T. Auer. 1999. Bacterioplankton Dynamics in the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum of Lake Superior.  Presented by K.D. Elenbaas at the 22nd Midwest Environmental Chemistry Workshop, Houghton, Michigan.  Outstanding Presentation Award.

Heppelmann, L.A., Elenbaas, K.D., and M.T. Auer. 1999. Thermal Bar Mediation of Biological Community Structure in Lake Superior.  Presented by L.A. Heppelmann at the 22nd Midwest Environmental Chemistry Workshop, Houghton, Michigan.

Northington, C.D., Auer, M. Thomas, Arlt, L.A., and M.T. Auer. 1999. Portage Waterway Loading Study: Partitioning the Sturgeon River Discharge.  Poster presented by M. Thomas Auer and L.A. Arlt at the 22nd Midwest Environmental Chemistry Workshop, Houghton, Michigan.

Gatzke, T.L. and M.T. Auer. 1999. Cross-Marginal Transport of Tributary Discharges to Lake Superior.  Poster presented by M.T. Auer at the 22nd Midwest Environmental Chemistry Workshop, Houghton, Michigan.

Auer, M.T., Heppelmann, L.A., and K.D. Elenbaas. 2000. Bacterioplankton and Phytoplankton Production in Lake Superior. Presented by M.T. Auer at the Ocean Science 2000 Meeting, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and American Geophysical Union, San Antonio, Texas.

Heppelmann, L.A., Elenbaas, K.D. and M.T. Auer. 2000. Thermal Bar Mediation of Biological Community Structure in Lake Superior.  Poster presented by L.A. Heppelmann at the Ocean Science 2000 Meeting, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and American Geophysical Union, San Antonio, Texas.

Elenbaas, K.D., Heppelmann, L.A. and M.T. Auer. 2000. Bacterioplankton Dynamics in the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum of Lake Superior.  Poster presented by K.D. Elenbaas at the Ocean Science 2000 Meeting, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and American Geophysical Union, San Antonio, Texas.

Bub, L.A., Elenbaas, K.D., and M.T. Auer. 2000. Observations And Modeling Of Thermal Bar Mediation Of Horizontal Structure In Bacterio- And Phytoplankton Populations In Lake Superior.  Presented by L.A. Bub at IAGLR-2000, the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.

Elenbaas, K.D., Bub, L.A., and M.T. Auer. 2000. Observations And Modeling Of Bacterioplankton In The Deep Chlorophyll Maximum Of Lake Superior.  Presented by K.D. Elenbaas at IAGLR-2000, the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.

Auer, M.T. and T.L. Gatzke. 2000. Spring Runoff Events, Thermal Bar Formation, And Cross-Margin Transport In Lake Superior. Presented by M.T. Auer at IAGLR-2000, the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.