Presented by Charles Azzarito, NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholar
One of the perks of the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship is choosing from one of the 17 National Marine Sanctuaries to do an internship. Charles chose Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, as a Florida native who had never been to Michigan or the Great Lakes before, because he wanted to be part of the first-ever freshwater acidification program!
At this lecture, he will share the latest research happening in NOAA's ongoing Freshwater Acidification Monitoring Project. You will learn about freshwater acidification, how changing levels impact the Great Lakes ecosystem, and how the public can get involved.
NOAA's Ocean Acidification program monitors pH, dissolved carbon (pCO2), conductivity, temperature, and other measurements of Earth's ocean due to climate change. As carbon gas emissions are absorbed by large bodies of water, which normally act as carbon sinks, the pH of these water systems change.
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory are currently working to expand the Freshwater Acidification Monitoring project throughout the Great Lakes region. This is the third year of a five year study collecting water samples from various shipwreck sites in Lake Huron. The results from this research will establish a baseline for future freshwater acidification monitoring.