Western Lake Erie water quality is severely degraded by recurring harmful algal blooms every summer, with varying degrees of severity and toxicity.

Over 50% of the world’s population lives within 3 km of a surface freshwater body, and nearly 2.4 billion people live within 10 km of the coastal ocean. In the U.S. alone, coastal zone counties account for 48% of the U.S. GDP and 42% of U.S. employment, representing the extensive use and importance of these ecosystems.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a critical component of food webs and the global carbon cycle, comprising 80-90% of coastal ocean carbon. Composed of an immensely complicated matrix of organic compounds, from amino acids and neutral sugars to structurally complex molecules such as lignin, DOM is sourced from all facets of an ecosystem and is tightly coupled with seasonal and hydrologic variability in coastal systems.

Earth’s biogeochemical processes are linked across aquatic, terrestrial, atmospheric, and human systems. The terrestrial-aquatic linkage is widely influenced and pushed beyond its natural variability due to intensifying storm events and changing weather patterns, coupled with the legacy of human watershed disturbances.