Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID MT_2025_Steinbach

Green ribbons in a blue-ribbon fishery: predicting nuisance algal blooms using river metabolism

Institute: Montana
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $2,500 Total Non-Federal Funds: Not available

Principal Investigators: Cora Steinbach

Project Summary: Eutrophication (i.e., nutrient impairment) is an old problem in freshwaters, yet still little is known about how excessive algal growth affects the function of river ecosystems. Filamentous algal blooms have insidiously established themselves in historically low-nutrient rivers due to warming water temperatures, slimmer snowpacks, and an influx of anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus. Unprecedented land use changes in the Mountain West have introduced new nutrient sources, such as septic system effluent, that threaten eutrophication. These threats motivate research that will prevent and predict eutrophication. Eutrophication in river systems is difficult to measure; this research addresses that challenge by assessing metrics of river metabolism that will help establish nutrient criteria and predict algal blooms in rivers.