Physical, chemical, and biological water quality monitoring data to support detection of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in western Lake Erie, collected by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research since 2012

NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), University of Michigan, started regular water quality monitoring of the western basin of Lake Erie in 2012.

Since that time the monitoring effort has expanded to incorporate additional parameters and sample locations. Physical, chemical, and biological water quality data were collected during repeated weekly sampling trips to a set of stations before, during, and after HAB events (from May - October). Data for these discrete sampling events include: wind speed, wave height, secchi depth, sample temperature, Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) Sonde temperature, CTD specific conductivity, CTD beam attenuation, CTD transmission, CTD dissolved oxygen, CTD photosynthetically active radiation, turbidity, particulate microcystin, dissolved microcystin, extracted phycocyanin, extracted chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus, soluble reactive phosphorus, ammonia, nitrate + nitrite, urea, particulate organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon, colored dissolved organic material absorbance at 400 nm, total suspended solids, and volatile suspended solids.