Professor Michael Miller Completes Fifth Ohio River Run Transect from Pittsburgh To Cairo

Press Release:

Ohio River Run 2005 was completed by 15 faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students from 5 Universities traveling 981 miles from Pittsburgh to Cairo between 1 - 12 August. Michael C. Miller, Professor of Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies (University of Cincinnati,OH), a veteran of all five years, worked with Dr. Rebecca L. Evans from Northern Kentucky University (KY) and undergraduate Ben Lye, Rivers Institute, Hanover College (IN), to monitor physical, chemical and algal responses to the river from inputs from its tributaries and from point source effluents, like wastewater from Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh. Dr. Chuck Somerville and his students from Marshall University (WV) monitored bacterial densities, coliforms and fecal coliforms plus those groups resistant to antibiotics used on humans and in industrial meat farming. Dr. Bill Nieman, also from Marshall U., examined turbidity every 10 miles. Dr. Tom Jones and his student, Keith Donahue, dove to examine species composition of snails, crayfish and native mussels every 25 miles. Dr. John Hageman and two undergraduates (Thomas More College, KY) monitored free swimming zebra mussel veligers every 5 miles and adults on shore every 25 miles.

The 2005 transect was unique in three ways from previous years: 1) the temperature was over 31C during midday over most of the river, resulting in death of paddlefish in the lower river; 2) the discharge was very, very low in 2005 allowing time for plankton responses to nutrient loading, primarily from point sources (waste water treatment plants) and some tributaries that affected the river down river (Kanawha, Great Miami, and Cumberland Rivers); 3) the zebra mussel infestation has returned in 2005 compared to the past 4 years, filtering the river of suspended algae, increasing light penetration (>2 meters), and changing the composition of algal species to those that they do not filter, namely cyanobacteria (Microcystis). Low flow conditions exacerbate the stressors to the river that should be considered in nutrient criteria and TMDL’s for the Ohio River watershed.. The mulitple year approach shows the sensitivity of the Ohio River to differences in discharge, nonpoint and point sources discharges, natural variation in weather and invasive species.