DETERMINING THE SUMMER 2017 COMPOSITION OF ALGAL BLOOMS IN OLD WOMEN CREEK NATIONAL ESTUARY OF LAKE ERIE USING REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY AND ALGAL CELL COUNTS

Old Women Creek National Estuary (OWC) is a protected State Nature Preserve in the southwestern shores of the Lake Erie, with an outlet to Lake Erie. Twenty-five water samples were collected from five different sites within the OWC, during mid-July for five days. Water samples were collected in dark Teflon bottles, preserved by mixing with 1% Lugol’s Iodine solution and refrigerated until they were transported to Northwest Missouri State for cell counts. For phytoplankton counts, 1ml of collected water sample was mixed with 9ml of a phosphate buffered saline solution. Diluted samples were allowed to settle in an Utermoehl sedimentation chamber with a microscope slide base for 24 hours. These slides were then observed on an inverted microscope at 400X magnification to count and differentiate phytoplankton at the Class level. A total of twelve different classes were used to classify the algae and cyanobacteria that were observed.

Visible color reflectance of water samples was measured using a Minolta 2600D spectrophotometer on oven-dried 0.4µm GF/F filter papers after filtering 250ml of water through them. Varimax-rotated principal component analysis was conducted to determine the varimax-rotated principal components (VPC) of reflectance data. VPCs were compared to known algal and/or pigment spectra using stepwise linear regression to find each contributing pigment(s) or algae for each VPC. VPC 1 comprises Chlorophyceae + Bacillariophycae + Cyanobacteria. Preliminary cell counts show a high abundance of Cyanobacteria, Euglenineae, and Chlorophyceae and support the VPC 1 color reflectance data.