NOAA Research News

Scientists from NOAA, the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute will launch and test an unmanned underwater vehicle equipped with technology capable of collecting and processing water samples that can be used to track harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

NOAA scientist Carol Stepien will present research results at a public forum this week in Toledo, Ohio, on how local bait shops, anglers and the public can prevent invasive fish from accidentally being released into the Great Lakes.

A new analysis of heat wave patterns appearing today in Nature Climate Change concludes that climate change driven by the buildup of human-caused greenhouse gases will overtake natural variability as the main cause of heat waves in the western United States by the late 2020s and by the mid-2030s in the Great Lakes region.

For more than two decades, Elizabeth Hunke has worked at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to design, create and improve a model used to predict sea ice extent, thickness and movement in both the Arctic and Antarctica. From the beginning, Hunke understood that collaboration was the key to improving this model. At a time when sea ice prediction is needed more than ever, NOAA, the Navy and other agencies are working together to extend sea ice prediction from days to decades.

ANN ARBOR—If they successfully invade Lake Erie, Asian carp could eventually account for about a third of the total weight of fish in the lake and could cause declines in most fish species—including prized sport and commercial fish such as walleye, according to a new computer modeling study by scientists at the University of Michigan, NOAA's Great Environmental Lakes Research Laboratory, other U.S. and Canadian research institutions.