Blooms of nuisance and toxic cyanobacteria, referred to as cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cHABs), occur annually in Lake Erie and pose a threat to human health, affect the quality of life, and significantly degrade the ecosystem. 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. The bulk water quality parameters were analyzed via established techniques and procedures for routine water quality monitoring and analysis (APHA 1992, 1998, 2017).

In 2014, CIGLR deployed moored buoys to collect real-time physical, chemical, and biological water quality data during the summer season. There are now four moored buoys deployed during the open water season in western Lake Erie that collect in situ data for the following parameters, average wind speed, maximum wind speed, air temperature, barometric pressure, depth, water temperature, specific conductivity, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin, dissolved organic matter, nitrate, and phosphate.