EAST ALTON- Early Monday morning, July 31, National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC℠) researchers took to the Mississippi River to deploy one of their GREON stations.

GREON stations are designed to capture real-time water quality data, such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, blue-green algae, and nitrate, to name a few. These data are important for informing watershed health and understanding the ecology of large-floodplains.

“We are excited to redeploy our GREON buoy back in Ellis Bay,” Research Specialist Jen Hemphill said. “Data has been collected here since 2014 and has allowed us to study seasonal, annual, and climatic changes on the water quality. One of our goals with GREON is to deploy water quality platforms throughout Illinois rivers gathering data in areas not currently monitored. This will help fill in data gaps of a river system’s overall water quality.”

National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC℠)

NGRREC is dedicated to the study of great river systems and the communities that use them, facilitating the efficient implementation of science into policy and to practice. Founded in 2002 as a collaborative partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Lewis and Clark Community College, the center aspires to be a leader in scholarly research, education, and outreach related to the interconnectedness of large rivers, their floodplains, watersheds, and their associated communities.