Maiden voyage of GREON Buoy launched in Ellis Bay for testing and performance evaluation

PISCES (Pontoon for In-situ Characterization of Environmental Systems), is a lightweight pontoon platform that supports water quality and meteorological sampling. The device will be deployed as part of the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center's long term river monitoring research program, GREON (Great Rivers Ecological Observation Network). The device will be the first water sampling platform to be used in a larger network of water quality platforms on the Mississippi River and large rivers around the world.

NGRREC affiliates with the Illinois Natural History Survey have been collecting water quality and fish data on the UMRS for the long term resource monitoring component (LTRM) of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Environmental Management Program for over 15 years.  Administered by the US Geological Survey and funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the LTRM is a partnership of four federal agencies and five state agencies.  NGRREC is one of seven research groups collecting and analyzing data for this important program.

NGRREC is expanding these monitoring and research activities into new locations on the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri rivers, and extending research and monitoring to the terrestrial habitats of these great rivers.  Scientists at NGRREC are working with the YSI Corporation to create a network of monitoring buoys capable of real-time, continuous collection of water quality and phytoplankton data.  This effort will begin on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers, with plans to expand to other great rivers throughout the world, creating a Great Rivers Ecological Observatory Network (GREON).