- · A Change at the Bird Feeder
· Alternative Fuels
· Bioretention Basin
· Colleges Working to Reduce Energy Consumption
· Ecological Engineering
· Energy Efficiency Goes Beyond Doors and Windows
· Flexi-Pave
· From Wood Chips to Plastic
· Going Green with Lighting
· Green Roofs
· Heating Our Homes
· Indoor Contaminants
· Invasive Plant Species
· Low Emission Asphalt
· Nanocrystals
· New homes built with concern for water conservation
· Picking the Right Tree
· Plastic Versus Paper Bags
· Revitalizing Ontario, NY
· Sackets Harbor
· Safe Drinking Water
· Saving Heritage Trees
· Seaside Goldenrods Found in CNY
· Shrub Willow
· Solar Panels
· Teachers take part in research opportunities
· Using Wood Chips for Energy
· Wood Burning Technology
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Teachers take part in Research Opportunities
Going Green
Going Green: Teachers take part in Research Opportunities
Researchers are doing a lot of work on Lake Ontario and one group of middle and high school science teachers had a special opportunity to get involved as part of a summer cruise aboard the Lake Guardian.
"I'm Greg Boyer. I'm with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse and I'm sort of the on-water science coordinator," Boyer said.
They take different kinds of water and sediment samples in a variety of locations and begin analyzing those samples right on board, using microscopes for a visual examination and then test for ph, turbidity, alkalinity and more.
"For 2008, our number one concern is understanding the changes that the zebra and quagga mussels, invasive species that arrived about a decade ago, how they've changed how the way nutrients are being cycled through the aquatic food web which has caused both water quality problems as well as biological problems," said Frederick Luckey of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The change is hurting efforts to restore a naturally reproducing population of lake trout to Lake Ontario. It's a native species and it was once the top cold-water predator in the lake.
"The status of the lake trout population has changed. We know we've had poor juvenile survival for over a decade now and the adult stock has declined to a very low level. And at the same time we've had many ecosystem changes, many of which we associated with the invasive species," said Jana Lantry, an aquatic biologist for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.
Since it's nearly impossible to turn back the clock and remove these invasive species from Lake Ontario, the question is, is there anything that can be done to overcome the problems they've caused?
This will all be pulled together into a comprehensive assessment of the Lake Ontario ecosystem and we're working on having a special conference in 2009 where we'll pull together all of these findings.
