This workshop explores the complex interactions that regulate the growth, distribution, and productivity of cyanobacteria in lakes. With the increasing predominance of cyanobacteria blooms around the world, understanding the ecology of these organisms and their relationship to other phytoplankton is more important than ever before. This workshop dissects cyanobacteria blooms from the inside out. Beginning with the physiology of phytoplankton and how cyanobacteria stand out with specific physiological advantages (such as gas vacuoles) over the other plankton groups. The success both tactically and strategically of cyanobacteria to use advantages requires an understanding of the complex interaction between the phytoplankton and lake water. The workshop switches gears to discuss the unique properties of water that make lakes what they are and how the fate of heat and light are the pivotal structural aspects that regulate distribution and succession of all plankton. The final section of the workshop will organize the presented material into a concise set of conditions that lead to blooms, the different types of blooms that can form, how cyanobacteria blooms perpetuate themselves, and how global warming is making it certain that there will be more blooms, that will last longer in the future.
Presenters
George W. Knoecklein started his limnological education at Unity College in Unity Maine, where he took part in one of the first studies of Unity Pond. George continued his education at Michigan State University where he earned a Master of Science in limnology while working on US EPA Clean Lakes projects at Lake Lansing, Michigan, and Skinner Lake, Indiana. George moved back to Connecticut in 1985 to pursue a career in lake management working for Ecosystem Consulting Service until earning a PhD in limnology from Peter Rich at the University of Connecticut. That year he founded Northeast Aquatic Research, a consulting firm that works specializing in assisting lake stakeholders understand and manage the threats of invasive aquatic plants and cyanobacteria.
Hillary Kenyon Garovoy is a Certified Lake Manager and Soil Scientist with Northeast Aquatic Research. She holds an undergraduate B.S. Environmental Science degree from the University of Connecticut and a M.S. Plant and Soil Science degree from the University of Massachusetts. She finds all topics in natural sciences fascinating, but Hillary’s favorite limnological subject is internal nutrient loading from subaqueous soils and sediments. When not out on lakes for water quality monitoring or aquatic plant surveying, Hillary is usually either hiking, diving, or gardening.