PUT-IN-BAY, Ohio — Sophia Schroeder was one of the nine students in the 2017 graduating class at the school here on South Bass Island. Living on the island, she was surrounded by Lake Erie and at an early age was able to develop an understanding of the lake’s value, its rich assets, and the complex challenges it faces.
“It can be difficult at times, being out there on an island, because you are secluded from all of the resources on the mainland,” the current junior at Ohio State said, “but the flip side of being at a small school is you can build valuable relationships with your teachers, and being around the lake every day was a big benefit when that connected you with your so many of your interests.”
Growing up on South Bass Island also placed her in close proximity to Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory — known simply as Stone Lab in the scientific community. That freshwater research field station, located on Gibraltar Island just a short water taxi ride from Put-in-Bay’s bustling harbor, was established about 125 years ago and has been part of The Ohio State University network for nearly a century.
With that giant petri dish that is Lake Erie just out the front door, Stone Lab and its programs have introduced thousands of individuals — elementary, middle school and high school students as well as adults — to the wonders of field-based biological science.
And Schroeder found that she can’t get enough of that work.
“Having Stone Lab right there was another huge advantage for me,” she said. Her interest in the science of the lake was sparked early, and it grew exponentially. Justin Chaffin, the senior researcher and research coordinator at Stone Lab, noticed that Schroeder’s high school science fair project was a very innovative endeavor when he judged that event.
“Sophia's project looked at the effect of microfibers on the survival of microscopic organisms,” Chaffin said. “Everybody hears about microplastics and how bad they are, but at that time, nobody knew about microfibers. I was really impressed that a high school student would ask such a novel question and design an experiment to test it.”
After she graduated from high school, Chaffin invited Schroeder to spend the summer working at Stone Lab and conducting research on Lake Erie invertebrates. She was back at Stone Lab the following summer, doing more research as an OSU undergrad.
“I asked her if she wanted to continue with the microfiber project or if she wanted to do a project closer to her major (biochemistry) and study benthic (bottom-dwelling) blue-green algae and what triggers their growth,” Chaffin said. “She chose the algae project and found that benthic cyanobacteria respond to the same nutrients (phosphorus and ammonium-nitrogen) as the scum forming blue-green algal blooms that plague western Lake Erie every year.”
Schroeder said every moment she spent at Stone Lab and its affiliated facilities on South Bass Island convinced her that biological research was the direction she hoped to take with her education and her life’s work. The student turned scientist in that environment.
“Stone Lab was like our neighbor and it offered us so much information about the lake and this unique place where we live,” she said. “I always wanted to find out how I could do my part to protect the lake, and Stone Lab showed me so much. It drove a very strong direction of where I wanted to go with my life and my career.”
The Stone Lab connection took root very early — when Schroeder was in first grade and Kristin Stanford, the education and outreach coordinator at Stone Lab, visited the Put-in-Bay School and introduced the students to the Lake Erie watersnake, which was on the federally endangered and threatened species list at the time. After learning about that native snake’s importance to the ecosystem of the islands, Schroeder was on the path to becoming another passionate steward of the lake’s flora, fauna, and its precious water. As she progressed at the island’s school, she made numerous visits to Stone Lab for field trips, water sampling, and classes that focused on the lake.
“I was shocked to realize how important Stone Lab was for so many things, and even though I always knew it was there, I had no idea that it worked with so many agencies, nationally and internationally, on some very important research projects,” she said.
“Dr. Chaffin and Dr. Sanford have been incredibly positive influences on my experience, they’ve always encouraged me, and believed in me and I’ve learned so much from them and their expertise. I feel much more confident because not many people have had this rich of an experience.”
Schroeder is preparing to enter her senior year at Ohio State, with an eye on graduate school and a career in research in the future. The primary tools in her work are the microscope and DNA analysis and she spends much of her time in the lab, but the big lake that has been such an important part of her life is never far away.
“When I first came to Ohio State as a freshman, I quickly realized how lucky I am to have that background of growing up on the island,” she said. “Some people I met in college didn’t know there were islands in Lake Erie or that people eat the fish from the lake, and those things are second nature to me. I got to see the importance of the lake by living it every day.”
Schroeder does not shy away from the big picture issues Lake Erie faces. She hopes her future research provides answers to some of the lake’s most pressing problems.
“My biggest concern about the lake is looking at it from a sustainability aspect since the Great Lakes are one of the largest sources of freshwater in the world and we need that for life. I think if we keep a close eye on the lake and are monitoring it closely, that will help preserve it for the future.”
First Published July 11, 2020, 2:00 p.m.
