BGSU students researching key aspect of Ohio wetlands implementation

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Just off campus, Bowling Green State University biology students have made the University’s Ecology Research Station home to dozens of mini experiments to support the state of Ohio’s efforts to mitigate harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

At the research station, students are helping conduct two wetland tank experiments, which together house more than 450 individual pots and represent many common plant species one might expect to see in a wetland in the Great Lakes region.

Through an in-depth study of each plant species, the effects of adding dredged sediment from the Maumee Bay on their establishment and their ability to absorb or trap nutrients — namely phosphorus and nitrogen — BGSU students are playing a key role in understanding how Ohio’s wetlands can be even m