Researchers, including those pictured from Bowling Green State University, are scheduled to meet for the 2021 Chautauqua Lake and Water Quality Research Panel on April 10 through the Chautauqua Institution Virtual Porch. Submitted photo

The Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance has scheduled its 2021 Chautauqua Lake Water Quality Research Panel for April 10 from 9:30-11 a.m.

Once again the Alliance is partnering with Chautauqua Institution to host the panel on its Virtual Porch online portal.

Details on keynote speakers and topics will be forthcoming, as will registration details, but the panel expected to include a range of scientists and researchers working on lake monitoring projects.

Institutions expected to take part in the discussion include representatives of State University of New York at Fredonia, Bowling Green State University, The Jefferson Project at Lake George and State University of New York at Oneonta.

The presentations will be free to the public and will feature question-and-answer periods.

The Alliance had intended to hold its 2020 panel in person, but pivoted to an online format due to COVID-19. After finding success with that format last year, the panel has returned to the Virtual Porch.

Alliance Executive Director Randall Perry is optimistic that research projects, such as nutrient sensor arrays, will continue to provide more information in the future that can be used to improve lake maintenance efforts.

Working alongside of the Chautauqua Lake Partnership, scientists from Bowling Green have deployed sensors in order to build a nutrient profile of the lake.

Perry said that effort will be bolstered by the addition of more nitrogen sensors this summer, and was hopeful that The Jefferson Project would continue its research efforts on the lake after deploying vertical profilers at two locations in 2020.

“That is really exciting to see how these data are going to be spun out into a better understanding of the lake dynamics and (harmful algal bloom) dynamics,” Perry said. “We are really excited to keep those researchers talking to one another and aware of what one another are doing.”