Quantifying Nutrient Retention by Lake Erie Coastal Wetlands - NERRS/NSC(NERRS Science Collaborative)

This project addressed key information gaps identified by land managers, regulators, and conservation groups involved in coastal wetland restoration and management efforts around Lake Erie. Capitalizing on the unique long-term water quality monitoring record at Old Woman Creek Reserve in Ohio, the project developed a unique analytic approach – a Bayesian hierarchical model – to quantify the long-term capacity for riverine Lake Erie coastal wetlands to retain phosphorus. The team developed a series of technical tools, including a monitoring protocol and freely available statistical code, to enable others to repeat their analysis and calculate the retention capacity of their own wetlands.