By Paul J Sniadecki, MLSA Board Member
Michigan State researchers were published in a September 2024 posting of the Journal “Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.” Jessica Diaz Vazquez and members of the Data Intensive Landscape Limnology Lab at Michigan State University (MSU) conducted a study to determine if lake data differs by economic, ethnic, or race areas.
Using the LAGOS-US database platform (an open-access research platform that includes compiled and integrated data for 479,950 lakes in the conterminous United States) the researchers focused on lakes at least 10 acres in size and located in all U.S. Census block areas. The sampling parameters selected were: Secchi Disk, Chlorophyll, and Phosphorus concentrations. Some of the data observed was gathered via Satellite Remote Sensing, while most was collected via techniques used in our Cooperative Lake Monitoring Program (CLMP) part of the MiCorps program.
The study found significant disparity in not only who lives around lakes, but also which lakes are monitored by Federal, State, and Local Governments. The full report can be reviewed at:
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.2803