Southeastern deploys seven additional monitoring buoys

Southeastern Louisiana University recently added seven chemical monitoring buoys in Lake Maurepas as part of the university’s on-going environmental monitoring project. Six of the seven buoys are strategically positioned around the periphery of the lake, with the seventh buoy positioned in the middle of the lake.

“These newly deployed buoys are small in size, but add an additional layer of real time water quality monitoring to the project, including water temperature, turbidity, tryptophan, refined fuels, BOD (biological oxygen demand), COD (chemical oxygen demand), coliforms, and methane,” said Director of the Lake Maurepas Monitoring Program Kyle Piller.

The scientists from Southeastern will be monitoring the aquatic populations (fishes, crabs, shrimp), as well as the plant life in the surrounding wetlands, and also watching and studying any variations in water quality. Scientists will use data captured directly from the lake to closely monitor the ecosystem, and the data will be made publicly available.

The website to access project data is southeastern.edu/lakemaurepas.