Monmouth University students have begun mining a trove of water quality data collected by the Coastal Lakes Observing Network (CLONet) to make important discoveries about the health of a dozen local lakes and marine life populations within them.
Residents of participating lake communities, Monmouth University scientists and student researchers gathered on campus June 23 for the 2025 Coastal Lakes Summer Summit, where they shared insights and news on their work from the past year. Monmouth students delivered two presentations on what was found through a statistical analysis of CLONet data and environmental DNA (eDNA) materials collected from the waters.
Through CLONet, Monmouth University School of Science and Urban Coast Institute (UCI) staff and students partner with community groups and residents to sample coastal lakes in Monmouth County for temperature, salinity, clarity, dissolved oxygen, and phycocyanin levels – an important indicator of harmful algal blooms – and file their readings to an online database for analysis. Water bodies monitored include: Deal Lake, Fletcher Lake, Jackson Woods Pond, Lake Como, Lake Takanassee, Shadow Lake, Silver Lake, Spring Lake, Sunset Lake, Sylvan Lake, Wesley Lake and Wreck Pond. Since its launch in 2019, volunteer community scientists working with CLONet have collected over 2,200 water samples from Monmouth County lakes.
Sunset & Deal Lakes: A Tale of Two Fish Populations
Dylan DiBella, who graduated with a marine and environmental biology and policy (MEBP) degree in May, compared eDNA extracted from Sunset and Deal lakes over the course of several months with the CLONet water samples to see if any relationships between the water conditions and marine life emerged. Sampling eDNA is a crime scene investigation-style approach to marine detection that has emerged as a more humane and less expensive means of studying fish populations than traditional methods that require their capture. As fish swim through the waters, they leave behind dandruff-like cells and bodily fluids that can be analyzed and matched to the genetic barcodes of others to determine their species.
DiBella displayed a chart estimating the top 10 most abundant fish species that testing determined to be living in the lakes (see carousel above). He said he was surprised to learn how different they were given how geographically close they are to each other, pointing out there were no species shared between either lake’s top three.
His research, which was supported by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, also examined how certain fish species reacted to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and other changes in the waters. For example, he found a negative correlation between white perch eDNA and elevated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) readings, which can be an indicator of a HAB’s onset. This suggests white perch can serve a living warning system to those who manage the lakes.
“Think about the canaries in the coal mine back in the day. Once the canaries start dropping, you know the air quality is not good anymore,” DiBella said. “White perch can function in the same exact way. Once we see it start to respond to harmful algal blooms, we may be able to determine where it’s going to occur and when it’s going to occur, and it can indicate the overall health of the lakes.”
Wesley Lake Sees Improvements
MEBP student Olivia Fowles and statistics students Anthony Stirone, and Brandon Govea, who all earned their degrees in May, sought to discern whether there were any notable long-term or seasonal trends visible in the water data over the years. The team also focused on whether the data showed any changes in water quality in areas where communities had invested in green infrastructure.
In 2020, Wesley Lake underwent a restoration project that included the installation of 12 floating wetland islands that have native plants growing upon them and roots that reach into the water. The islands were designed to remove excess phosphorous and nitrogen that fuel HABs while providing extra habitat within the heavily developed environment. While community members at the meeting said they’ve seen birds and fish taking advantage of the islands, their benefits to water quality had not been measured until now.
According to the team’s analysis, Welsey Lake saw dissolved oxygen (DO) levels improve at a rate greater than any other CLONet lake in the years since the islands were added. Endowed Professor of Marine Science Jason Adolf noted that seeing DO improvements is an important milestone, as low oxygen levels are frequently tied to fish kills, HABs, and poor lake health overall.
“Just like you and me, two minutes without oxygen is going to kill something in the water,” Adolf said.
Among other findings, Sylvan Lake has not yet seen a DO increase since it began a series of living shoreline project in 2019. However, water clarity levels were found to have improved and conductivity increased, indicating it has become saltier.
More on CLONet
Slides from these and other presentations delivered at the meeting can be downloaded here.
To learn more about CLONet, including how to volunteer to monitor your community lake, visit the CLONet website or email Community Science Coordinator Erin Conlon at econlon@monmouth.edu. You can also visit the CLONet Data Explorer to view data on lake averages, how individual lakes compare to the full group, and more.