Advancing Great Lakes understanding through phosphorus dynamics

UB Environmental Engineering PhD candidate Yuan Hui (left) receives Davd Dolan Scholarshipo from Michael Twiss at Clarkson University (right). Photo: Paula McIntyre

By Peter Murphy

Published May 30, 2019

Yuan Hui, an environmental engineering PhD candidate, received the David M. Dolan Scholarship from the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) for her work on phosphorus dynamics in the Great Lakes.

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“My research perfectly fits [IAGLR’s] goal,” Hui says. “We go a little bit further. We look at phosphorus dynamics in the Great Lakes and ask ‘how can we understand how this can cause ecological problems?’”

The David M. Dolan Scholarship is awarded to graduate students conducting research that advances the understanding and management of Great Lakes ecosystems in the following areas: statistics, mathematical modeling, data analysis and quantitative decision support.

Hui’s research focuses on the mathematical modeling described in this award, specifically, computer and numerical modeling. Although she does not go into the field herself, she uses data collected from researchers with the Environmental Protection Agency, United States Geological Survey and Environment and Climate Change Canada to develop the models.

Local algae bloom issues are one example of an ecological problem some of the Great Lakes experience. When this happens near the lake shoreline, it often results in beach closures, according to Hui. “Part of the reason for this is phosphorus dynamics, and it is related to other factors like air temperature, water temperature, wind and all those ecological conditions. It’s like an integrated systematic problem,” Hui says.

The systematic problem occurs in a larger system, made up of various interactions associated with the Great Lakes. “Call it water quality, or ecological process; they have some interaction with the physical lake dynamics, hydrodynamics and the general circulation of those issues,” Hui says, “we want to use a numerical model to combine those processes and have a system to try and answer why those local ecological problems happen, and to provide experts with the decision-making tool to control the phosphorus loading target.”

Hui received the scholarship of $3,000 earlier this year.                                                                                                             

Last week, Hui also was awarded first place in the graduate student technical paper competition during the World Environmental & Water Resource Institute Congress. Hui’s paper, Analyzing the Effects of Wind and Stratification on Surface Currents in a Large Lake studies the individual effects of wind and stratification on Lake Ontario surface currents and Niagara River Plume.

“This study helps better understand the roles of metrological conditions, especially wind and air temperature, on lake circulations and nutrient distributions,” Hui says, “the study will also help predict bloom possibilities under the stress of meteorological forcing, influenced by climate change.”