Grants through Ohio's Lake Erie Protection Fund
The Ohio Lake Erie Commission awarded two quarterly grants through Ohio's Lake Erie Protection Fund at its December meeting in Columbus.
The fund was established to help finance research and projects aimed at protecting, preserving and restoring Lake Erie and its watershed.
The fund is supported by Ohioans through tax-deductible donation or purchase of a Lake Erie license plate displaying the Marblehead Lighthouse or the Lake Erie life preserver.
Grants were awarded to:
• John Carroll University — $15,000 to develop and test a water quality metric for algal phytoplankton in the Lake Erie near shore area. The metric will be used to score the health of algal phytoplankton communities and the impacts of phosphorus.
Researchers will use a numeric scale based on sensitivity values of organisms at each sampling site. The metric will serve as a tool for assessment of water quality along Lake Erie's nearshore.
• Ohio State University — $14,956 to compare composition, size and seasonal variation of fish species at three different water conveyance structures in Lake Erie coastal wetlands.