Mike: Our group has not done research on salinization (at least to date!) but other researchers have documented that levels of road salt application are increasing. In general, road salts are washed into storm drains and the water is not treated before it enters lakes and streams.

Car salespeople do, in fact, have to be licensed by the state--Not just the dealership, but the salespeople, too.

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I also hold several professional state licenses and that just means I have to pay a fee to the state every year after taking an original test on the subject matter.

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Marketing is just a gimmick to get people to spend their money over here and not over there. Anyway, real estate agents are overpaid for what they do, IMO.

and everything I hear on the media sounds like fear-mongering BS.

Realtors are licensed by the state and required to act as fiduciaries. Used (or new) car salespeople are neither. That comparison is just another red herring people cling to to make sense of things they dont understand.

I am willing to show anyone real, current, actual sales numbers and prove that the only thing falling is what home sellers have been asking for. Actual closed sales PRICES are NOT falling. Not at all.

Everything you said sounds like a made up bunch of marketing by real estate agents to make people think they need one.

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Sorry, I just think you guys are mostly like used car salesmen-Shady. Houses sell themselves considering where they're located and what people can afford. That's it. No other reason.

That is 100% a subjective opinion with equally subjective ways to come up with it.

For the following reasons:

- No real Estate attorney knows marketing.

- No real Estate attorney is going to drive you around to shop for homes.

- No real Estate attorney is going to explain to you how to prepare your home for sale.

- The average person does NOT want to negotiate or haggle with an opposing buyer or seller.

- The average consumer in the USA is aware of 'Consumer Protections' and 'Fair Housing Laws' that protect them, but unaware of how they apply.

- No real Estate attorney is going to facilitate your inspections.

- No real Estate attorney is going to show your home to buyers and actually try to SELL them on it.

- No real Estate attorney is going to show you homes.

- No real Estate attorney is going to answer your phone calls at all hours

- No real Estate attorney is going to do all the above up front with NO PAYMENT until closing.

I could go on for quite a while. Lots of GREAT reason to hire a helpful Real Estate broker!

How does one determine if the overall market is overpriced or even in a bubble? What signs can someone look for to determine if prices will or could be coming down?

Why do real estate agents exist? I can sell my house to whomever wants to buy it and an attorney can do up all the paper work for a fraction of the cost, so why do people need agents?

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Do you have a data scientist/ data science team working in your project? If yes, what methods did they use to offset the negative effects of small samples when it comes to ML? (You mentioned that the data from the samples do not scale well on an ecosystem level)

How significant an issue is winter salt run off from cities? Is the salt removed from waste water somehow before it lands up in the great lakes?

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Forever chemicals are a very real and serious problem.
For example, there are recent news reports about high levels of chemicals referred to as PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in fish across the United States (and likely across Canada too) that are very concerning, especially those who consume freshwater fish.
For the immediate future, the public needs to know about this issue and be provided guidance (e.g., fish consumption advisories) for the level of risk associated with eating fish from different geographic areas. For Canada, this means we need much better data on the level of these PFAS chemicals in fish from lakes and rivers across the country, especially in areas where local communities rely on fishing as part of their culture or livelihood.
However, this is not enough. These results indicate much more effort needs to go into reducing the input of these chemicals into our lakes and rivers. This will likely require much stricter regulation of the use of such chemicals in thousands of products (from cell phones to non-stick frying pans, from cosmetics to fast-food wrappers).

Excellent question.
Freshwater science is undergoing rapid changes that are associated with increases in technology. For example, data collection has traditionally been limited by logistical capacity— the ability to get to the research site (sometimes by boat or float plane) and return to the laboratory with a water sample. While these types of activities still occur, they are now increasingly supplemented by automated sensors that can connect to satellites. These sensors often collect data at much higher frequencies than traditional methods and they can be available in ‘real time’ for decision makers. An example of this is for drinking water facilities that now monitor source water for algal blooms or high levels of suspended particles in real time, which allows them to adjust their processes like the amount of chlorination required. The large increase in data from sensors will mean that science disciplines like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will become increasingly important.
Although it might seem like a small thing, there have already been large improvements in the accessibility of data (open data) which have led to an upsurge in global analyses of freshwater (for example, how climate change is affecting the properties of lakes at a global scale). We expect this trend to continue. Some additional advancements in the past 10 years, like the ability to reliably measure environmental DNA, are increasingly being incorporated into research and monitoring and hold great promise for our discipline. It may be that the use of eDNA becomes commonplace to measure biodiversity and the abundance of species not only present currently, but also back in time (through the evaluation of eDNA in sedimentary records).

>placing sensors across our lakes so we can keep track of them, in real time, from the comfort of our desks

What kind of sensors are those?

As someone who loves fishing (mainly in SK), what are some things i can look out for that maybe redflags? And if noticed who/where can i inform people like you and the team to potentially assist in the preservation of our beautiful lakes?

Check out the 'employment' page on our website!

What are your findings, if any, and comment on the amount of salt that is used in the various cities around the great lakes whose storm water drains into them, untreated?

Growing up in Toronto, insemento notice that far more salt seems to be used today than ever before. On roads but particularly in plazas and parking lots.

I know the volume of water in the great lakes is immense but i have to imagine this is having a measurable effect.

I don't know why you're getting downvoted. How it reads can be more important than accuracy.

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Little late to the party... We use thousands of tons of salt mines from enormous reserves 2000' below the great lakes. Dumpling this locally on all roadways. What effect does this have as it eventually makes its way to all our fresh water lakes? I often wonder, but guess that the elevation means it ultimately drains to the oceans and is replaced by fresh spring waters. Is there any concern here?

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Not OP, but there isn't really a practical temperature for that. Giardia cysts (beaver fever) and e. coli can survive temps up to 60-70 degrees Celsius. And at that temp you aren't going for a swim without cooking yourself.

Most things aren't as active in the winter. I believe leeches more or less "hibernate" in the mud during winter, and algae blooms definitely aren't a problem. So you wouldn't have to be as concerned with gross things, depending on what you're trying to avoid.