good evening loyal followers of my phenology blog. this thanksgiving break, I went home to the lovely lagooons of northfield illinois, (45 minutes outside of chicago, by the way) in order to observe some phenology of my own. and oh boy was i in for a treat. lets dive in.
as seen in the areal view, there is a large and visible problem with cyanobacteria facing the lagoonal ecosystem near my house. with my environmental science class in highschool, we would often go on trips to take samples from the water there, and test for nutrient levels, which, with a lack of agriculture in our area, seems to be largely from golf course runoff, from the area pictured in the upper right corner. other sections of the aquatic system, pictured below, are more heavily impacted by this nutrient pollution, being in more stagnant and shallower areas of the lagoon, which is very similar to the phenomenon in the missisquoi bay section of lake champlain, which experiences massive blooms. the winnoski river, being a headwater to lake champlain, contains some of these pollutants into the main lake, in addition to having it’s own ecosystems impacted by an imbalance in nutrient levels.
