Environment
Researchers focus attention on Lake Huron
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By SARA MATTHEWS
Capital News Service
LANSING — Lake Huron has the most shoreline and is the second largest of the Great Lakes, yet it gets perhaps the least scientific attention. That will soon change now that Lake Huron is the home of a new long-term research program started by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. From the agency’s base at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, scientists are studying water quality, invasive and native species, nutrient levels and physical properties of the lake. It’s long overdue, said Henry Vanderploeg, the program’s lead researcher. “Lake Huron is the least studied lake,” Vanderploeg said.