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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > June 18, 2008
Lake Express and UWM partnering to study Lake Michigan CO2
Published June 18, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
A partnership between the Lake Express High Speed Ferry and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) is allowing researchers to study the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide fluctuations between Lake Michigan and the atmosphere — the first
such study of its kind conducted on a large body of water.
The program, lead by scientist Dr. Harvey Bootsma of the UWM Great Lakes WATER Institute, began in spring 2007. Dr. Bootsma approached the Lake Express management and requested to install automated, GPS-enabled equipment designed to continuously analyze water samples as the ferry crosses Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Muskegon.
"The study's goal is to determine whether Lake Michigan is a net source or net sink of carbon dioxide — in other words, throughout the year, does Lake Michigan absorb more carbon dioxide than it releases?" said John Schafer, research associate with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Great Lakes WATER Institute. "It's truly a great partnership for us. To have equipment aboard a vessel that traveled nearly 70,000 miles across Lake Michigan last year has given us a unique opportunity to view temporal and spatial changes in the lake."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), asked the Water Institute last year to add a sensor to measure ozone levels over the lake.
