Benthic Algal Community Composition in the Laurentian Great Lakes (2018-2023)

This data set includes information on benthic algae community composition collected during the growing seasons of 2018-2023 at stations located along the U.S. shoreline of Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Benthic algal community observations were taken by scuba divers in the field and by personnel in the lab during sample processing with the goal to determine primary and secondary dominance of five major algae groups: Cladophora spp., Chara spp., diatoms, non-branching filamentous green algae, and other algae. While in early years of the project (2018-2020) the dominance was qualitatively assessed based on field and lab observations. From 2021 to 2023, a progressively more detailed microscopic examination was added for quantitative assessments of relative percent cover of algal groups. This dataset is part of a larger data set that includes algal and dreissenid mussel biomass; water quality assessments; and diver observations of dreissenid mussels, round gobies, benthic substrate, and benthic algal cover. We refer to the benthic algal community also as the Cladophora community and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in other published project data, which were collected starting in 2018 (Great Lakes Science Center, 2018).

[
  "010:12"
]

[
  "geospatial"
]