Building a Collaborative Water Quality Monitoring Strategy for a Changing St. Louis River Estuary

November 20, 2025 - The St. Louis River Estuary, located at the headwaters of Lake Superior, is nearing a major milestone: its anticipated delisting as a Great Lakes Area of Concern by 2030. Yet even as remediation and restoration successes are celebrated, new environmental stressors, particularly harmful algal blooms, raise concerns about the estuary’s long-term water quality health. In response, a group of local, state, federal, and Tribal partners - who have long worked in, cared for, and advocated for a coordinated monitoring effort within the estuary - began calling for a science-based monitoring strategy that could respond to emerging threats and support ongoing stewardship beyond delisting. This group of partners collaborated closely with the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve to shape a shared vision: a comprehensive program of observations, analyses, and public reporting that would protect remediation and restoration investments and inform future decision-making.

The partners and project team developed a research approach that combined strong scientific design to build foundational understanding of phytoplankton dynamics with a focus on generating practical, actionable insights for a shared long term monitoring strategy. In this webinar, the project team will share more about predictors of cyanobacteria biovolume identified in the estuary and an actionable sampling approach they developed to improve bloom detection and efficient water quality monitoring into the future.

Speakers: Hannah Nicklay, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve; Peter Birschbach, University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute; Euan Reavie, University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute; Chris Filstrup, University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute

Explore resources related to the webinar:
https://nerrssciencecollaborative.org...

Learn more about the project and explore associated resources:
https://nerrssciencecollaborative.org...

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00:00 - Intro and housekeeping
03:35 - Overview of presentation (Hannah)
05:21 - Background of project and place (Euan)
10:45 - Sampling and analysis design (Chris)
15:40 - Key results summary (Peter)
16:47 - Phytoplankton and cyanobacteria
20:56 - Spatial analysis
23:36 - Case study: Barker's Island Frequency Reduction
26:59 - Sampling frequency recommendations
27:47 - Water quality observations
29:19 - Environmental predictors of cyanobacteria biovolume
33:50 - Synthesized findings
34:39 - Collaborative process
48:08 - Q&A