Webinars

May 7, 2025 | 12:00-1:00pm

Aired March 5, 2025

This webinar featured the work of Rick Strumpf of NOAA and Rebecca North of the University of Missouri, looking at cyanobacteria in the Great Lakes and other large lakes from satellite and winter cyanobacteria.

Link to recording

Aired December 12, 2024

This event, co-sponsored by the Hoosier Environmental Council and Purdue’s Institute for a Sustainable Future, provides a general introduction to the group of manmade chemicals known as “PFAS” or “Forever Chemicals.” In this first of a series of two, scientists from Purdue University provide current information on the sources, uses and impacts of PFAS on human health and the environment with particular emphasis on concerns for Hoosiers. rounding out the event will be a discussion of policy impacts of PFAS at both state and federal levels as well as an opportunity for Q&A.

Link to recording

Aired December 4, 2024

Co-sponsored by the Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future and the White River Alliance, this webinar will focus on a discussion of industrial water needs in the state of Indiana and how to manage these needs through innovative approaches to industrial water reuse. The team will also explore the latest research and policy advances in this area.

Link to recording.

Aired 7, 2024

This edition of the Algal Bloom Action Team featured Nicole Wagner, Assistant Professor at Oakland University, who explores how anthropogenic nutrient enrichment and imbalances of nitrogen to phosphorus ratios affects the eco-physiology and cyanotoxin concentration and quotas in cyanobacteria bloom-forming genera. This topic was explored at different scales from manipulative controlled laboratory experiments to whole ecosystem high-frequency monitoring.

Link to recording

June 5, 2024 | 12:00-1:00pm

As we head into another season of harmful algal blooms, we are focusing this webinar on cyanobacteria in the context of global climate change, including nitrate, reduced ice cover, and increased temperatures and light. Tune in as we feature the work of Rebecca North, Associate Professor at the University of Missouri’s School of Natural Resources and Silvia Newell, Director of Michigan Sea Grant and Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability.

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Aired April 23, 2024

In anticipation of the release of the FY24 RFPs for 104G General, AIS, and PFAS nation competitions, the Great Lakes region is once again organizing a webinar for prospective applicants in these programs. The webinar will not be region-specific, however, and is meant for a nationwide audience of university researchers, potential USGS collaborators, and water center/institute staff.

The webinar start with a brief presentation of the FY24 funding opportunities, including the priorities in each RFP, budget requirements, and time for questions. The second portion of the webinar will be topic-specific breakout rooms for researchers to identify potential collaborators. USGS scientists are being invited to attend these sessions to briefly describe their work and interests in collaborating with university researchers.

Link to recording

View webinar slides 

Aired April 3, 2024

This edition of the Algal Bloom Action Team featured Ellen Preece, Senior Scientist for the California Department of Water Resources. Dr. Preece shared her research monitoring microcystin from 2020 to 2023, which spanned California’s driest consecutive 3-year period and one of the wettest years on record (2023).

Link to recording

Aired February 7, 2024

The first Algal Bloom Action Team Webinar of the year featured two presentations – Jen Wisecaver, associate professor at Purdue University, who discussed extreme diversity and cryptic species in Prymnesium parvum and Barry Rosen, professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, who highlighted the secrets of freshwater cyanobacteria blooms.

Link to recording

Aired December 13, 2023

Dr. Keith Cherkauer, Dave Lampe (USGS), and Dr. Marty Frisbee (Purdue) presented on the 2023 Water Report, groundwater-surface water interaction (what it is and why it matters), and current research in Indiana.

Co-hosted by White River Alliance, Institute for a Sustainable Future, and the Indiana Water Resources Research Center

Link to recording

Aired December 6, 2023

In this edition of the Algal Bloom Action Team webinar series, we welcomed Gina LaLiberte (Wisconsin DNR) and Dr. Anna Boegehold (Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research-CIGLR). Gina focused on public perceptions, expectations, and realities around harmful cyanobacterial blooms, while Dr. Boegehold shared 10+ years of western Lake Erie water quality monitoring data from NOAA GLERL and CIGLR.

Link to recording

Aired October 4, 2023

Understanding algal blooms’ dynamics is essential for ecosystem and human health. While there’s been a hypothesis of climate-driven bloom intensification, U.S. lake data showed it’s not widespread. Early warning indicators of declining resilience may predict severe blooms in some cases, especially when significant ecosystem changes occur. This webinar featured Dr. Grace Wilkinson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who explored these complicated dynamics.

Link to recording