Iowa Ambient Lake Monitoring

In partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the ISU Limnology Lab monitors the water quality of over 130 publicly significant lakes in the state of Iowa. This includes many physical (including profiles), chemical (including nutrients, carbon, and algal toxins), and biological (including phytoplankton and zooplankton) variables. Dr. Wilkinson directed this program from 2017-2020. This vast data set has been collected for more than 20 years and is used to assess the health of Iowa's lakes and inform management and restoration efforts. ​To learn more about the program, visit the DNR website.

DATA AVAILABILITY:
The data can be freely accessed through the DNR's AQuIA database:
Select "21IOWA-Iowa DNR Surface Water Monitoring Data"
Then "Project/Task"
Then "AMBLAKE - ISU"

​Note: For data from 2008, the Project/Task is "AMBLAKE-SHL"

Des Moines River Water Quality Network

The Des Moines River Water Quality Network (DMRWQN) is a surface water quality monitoring project, conducted by investigators in Iowa State University's departments of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology and Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering under contract with the Rock Island District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Dr. Wilkinson directed this program from 2018-2020. This intensive data set, which involves year round sampling, has been collected for 40+ years at these sampling locations. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to create a public data repository. In the meantime, contact the Rock Island District to request access to the river and reservoir data. 

 Published Data Sets

  1. Albright, E.A., G.M. Wilkinson, T.J. Butts, and Q.K. Shingai. 2022. Summer water chemistry; sediment phosphorus fluxes and sorption capacity; sedimentation and sediment resuspension dynamics; water column thermal structure; and zooplankton, macroinvertebrate, and macrophyte communities in eight shallow lakes in northwest Iowa, USA (2018-2020) ver 3. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/1d3797fd573208bae6f78963479445a0
  2. Wilkinson, GM, JA Walter, CD Buelo, ML Pace. 2021. Analysis and data for "No evidence of widespread algal bloom intensification in hundreds of lakes". Zenodo archive of data and code. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5496239.
  3. Leung, T, GM Wilkinson, ED Swanner. 2021. Iron availability allows sustained cyanobacterial blooms: a dual-lake case study. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14596019.v1 
  4. Albright, EA and GM Wilkinson. 2021. Spatiotemporal variation in internal phosphorus loading, sediment characteristics, water column chemistry, and thermal mixing in a hypereutrophic reservoir in southwest Iowa, USA (2019-2020) ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/d3a70c1f0d534cca8bdebd7f7483ef38.
  5. Albright, EA, GM Wilkinson, RA Fleck, Q Shingai. 2020. Analysis of Sediment Phosphorus Pools in Shallow Lakes. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13362971.v1
  6. Wilkinson, G, W Crumpton, C Rehmann, B Noack, E Sandry. 2019. Monthly nitrate concentrations in the Des Moines River above Saylorville Reservoir, 1976 - 2016. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/62b9457797ba8a6470795c49ed315047
  7. Ortiz, DA, J Palmer, GM Wilkinson. 2019. Hypereutrophic lake sensor data during summer algae blooms in Iowa, USA, 2014 - 2018. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/30070d41fbcdf36387f33d9108f570f8
  8. Ortiz, DA, GM Wilkinson. 2019. Hypereutrophic lake spatial sensor data during summer bloom, Swan Lake, Iowa, USA 2018. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/2c0ca177438a3d422925811514e86cd8. 
  9. Oreska, M., G. Wilkinson, and K. McGlathery. 2018. South Bay, VA, seagrass sediment and autotroph source stable isotope compositions, 2014 ver 2. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/e977df9c6a2b76d04e4116628d4fb976