With its important geographical location and status as the largest saltwater body in China, Qinghai Lake plays a vital role in the ecological environment of the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Due to climate change and the subsequent adjustment of Qinghai Lake’s tourism policy, it is necessary to understand groundwater discharges in southeast of Qinghai lake both for ecological protection

Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is a species of conservation concern throughout North America, and healthy populations are rare. Earlier sampling efforts identified the Goulais Bay population in Lake Superior as a potentially healthy population after three years of sampling. With seven additional years of sampling, we updated the earlier analysis and developed a matrix population model to conduct

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) enlisted the help of three past capstone program participants through the University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). Between 2019 and 2020, graduate students researched how Michigan Public Advisory Councils (PACs) can maximize their effectiveness and stewardship impact within the Michigan Areas of

Non-native species and climate change pose serious threats to global biodiversity. However, the roles of climate, dispersal, and competition are difficult to disentangle in heterogeneous landscapes. We combine empirical data and theory to examine how these forces influence the spread of non-native species in Lake Baikal. We analyze the potential for Daphnia longispina to establish in Lake Baikal, potentially

Incorporating organismal hydrogen (δ2H or δD) and oxygen (δ18O) stable isotope ratios into aquatic food web research can help elucidate relative reliance on shoreline inputs and/or feeding at different trophic levels; however, their interpretation is complicated by the fact that aquatic organisms derive hydrogen and oxygen from both their diet and the ambient water in which they reside. We examined

Cyanobacterial blooms are increasing in frequency, duration, and severity globally in freshwater ecosystems. The Laurentian Great Lakes are prone to toxin-producing cyanobacterial blooms and have experienced annually recurring blooms. Because of its oligotrophic nature, Lake Superior has been relatively free of bloom occurrences. However, in recent years, Dolichospermum blooms have occurred with increasing

We congratulate the authors and co-authors of this special issue that addresses the social and organizational dimensions of Great Lakes remediation, regeneration, and revitalization. It makes an important contribution to our understanding and practice of making the Great Lakes resilient to the human pressures invoked on them.

This Research Study was conducted to demonstrate and measure social wellbeing in Michigan coastal communities resulting from investments in local water-related projects and resource development that can lead to community vibrancy and to provide a model for communities throughout Michigan and the Great Lakes Basin. The primary goal of the study was to develop and implement an online Community Vibrancy

Great Lakes coastal shorelands encompass valuable environmental and social resources. Most are privately owned. Governments play an important role in managing the use of those shorelands to ensure adequate conservation of the natural and social benefits they provide. Scientists have demonstrated that imprudent land uses are yielding significant ecological harms and increased risks to coastal shorelands

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Studies in the oceans and The Great Lakes have found several orders of magnitude less plastic in surface samples than predicted by input estimates. Some plastic likely sinks after entering the water because it is naturally more dense than freshwater. For less dense particles, it has been proposed that biofouling, or the buildup of organic materials on the plastic, can cause them to become more dense

Beginning in 2013, sites at the 128-m bottom depth contour were added to the sampling design of the annual Lake Michigan bottom trawl survey for prey fish, which has been conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) each fall since 1973, to better assess fish depth distributions in a changing ecosystem. The standard sampling design included bottom depths from 9 to 110 m

Assessment of population sex ratios allows managers to forecast recruitment dynamics and loss of genetic diversity in natural populations and is important when the focal population is in low abundance and subject to demographic stochasticity. If levels of natural or artificial selection differ for males and females and levels of mortality likewise vary, lower levels of population recruitment, loss

A network of north–south linear troughs occupies the eastern portion of the Lake Superior basin. Morphology suggests these features are tunnel valleys that formed through erosion as subglacial conduits and conveyed meltwater to a former glacial margin. We demonstrate the southern continuation of these valleys onshore into the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan by mapping bedrock topography using the

For three decades, communities, agencies, industries, and stakeholders throughout the Great Lakes have been working together to restore degraded ecosystems and revitalize local communities through the Areas of Concern Program. Their work constitutes a set of natural experiments in collaborative ecosystem-based management (EBM). Similar experiments have been occurring simultaneously elsewhere in North

This paper addresses subaqueous and subaerial patterns of geomorphic change across Montrose Beach, an urban embayment along Chicago’s engineered SW Lake Michigan coastline. Our goal was to better characterize the urban littoral zone, its sediment-transport processes, and associated shoreline morphodynamics (from the early 1950s to present). Succinct beach geomorphic responses to decadal base-level

This project tests a cost-effective, innovative dredged sediment placement technique targeted to nourish an eroded barrier bar. The dredged sediment was placed in the nearshore in a Cobble Bell, a form designed to allow for efficient dispersal and migration of sediment by natural processes in this location (such as predominant waves and longshore transport) in a desired direction along the bar. We

In Lake Erie, lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis supported lucrative fisheries before populations were decimated by overfishing and water quality degradation. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in lake whitefish and management of the fishery they support. Lake whitefish spawn on several reefs throughout Lake Erie, but the relative recruitment dynamics and contributions of spawning

Though aquatic ecosystems (and the Laurentian Great Lakes in particular) have faced many stressors over the past century, including fisheries collapses and species invasions, rarely are data available to evaluate the long-term impacts of these stressors on food web structure. Stable isotopes of fish scales from the 1940s to the 2010s in South Bay, Lake Huron were used to quantify trophic position and

As the global water balance accelerates in a warming climate, extreme fluctuations in the water levels of lakes and aquifers are anticipated, with biogeochemical, ecological and water supply consequences. However, it is unclear how site-specific factors, such as location, morphometry and hydrology, will modulate these impacts on regional spatial scales. Here, we report water level time series collected

Lake of the Woods (LoW) is a large, transboundary lake that continues to experience harmful algal blooms despite large declines in phosphorus (P) inputs from point sources. Tributary runoff is considered the largest source of P to the lake; however, there are few monitoring data within the Canadian portion of the basin (∼60% of total area), to guide management. To address this gap, we monitored five

The Detroit River ecosystem has been the focus of extensive and sustained environmental restoration efforts over the past fifty years. These efforts are rightly understood to play an important role in the revitalization of river-adjacent communities. The positive ecological and community impacts of such efforts can potentially be amplified by attending to the narrative infrastructure that inevitably

This study uses hedonic modeling to estimate the property value benefits of remediation in the White Lake and Muskegon Lake, MI Areas of Concern (AOC). Both sites had long histories of industrial contamination; in the case of White Lake, this included tannery waste, and in the case of Muskegon Lake, this included oil spills. Several remediation projects in White Lake led to its delisting as an AOC

The combined effects of urbanization and climate change require resource managers to navigate interacting social and ecological dimensions of environment in the stewardship of ecosystem goods and services. The challenge of integrating multiple management paradigms into the planning process for sustainable restoration is complex, yet when handled successfully, can result in the emergence of ecosystem

Surface water phosphorus loading must be reduced to improve water quality and decrease harmful algal blooms. Many wetlands have a natural capacity to retain inorganic reactive PO43− via soil sorption. However, soil PO43− retention capacity is finite and may be limited by soil legacy phosphorus effects in agricultural and urban areas. This study evaluated soil PO43− retention in soils from a wetland

Anthropogenic sources of total phosphorus (TP) and chloride (Cl−) to lakes and rivers have been issues of concern for many decades in the Great Lakes Basin with northern Boreal Shield headwater tributaries less well studied. In the Sturgeon River – Lake Nipissing – French River basin, a headwater basin of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, water quality monitoring of major inflows to Lake Nipissing, the third

With the many different interests that are connected to the water levels of the Laurentian Great Lakes, the future of these water levels are of great concern to many people, businesses, and institutions. Projected future lake levels were calculated using data from the North American component of the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment. The final lake level results are presented in relation

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Understanding whether fishes feed selectively is important for informing conservation and management actions such as selecting receiving waters for stocked fishes and prioritizing nursery habitats for preservation or restoration. We conducted a laboratory experiment to determine if (1) age-0 muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) and northern pike (E. lucius), two primarily piscivorous congeners in the Laurentian

Lake Peipsi, one of the world’s largest lakes, is shared between Estonia and Russia. The water quality in different parts of the lake has so far been assessed independently. Here we explore opportunities for combining data of Estonian and Russian monitoring. For that, we 1) analysed the compatibility of data for some water quality variables; 2) estimated the potential effects of the differences in

Dispersal, the movement of individuals from their natal population to their breeding population, has important ecological and evolutionary consequences. In lotic freshwater systems, landscape features such as barriers or connectors, can affect dispersal and thus gene flow. It is of special interest to characterize population genetic structure in the presence of impassable barriers because they can

Knowledge concerning critical habitats such as spawning sites is crucial to the preservation of vulnerable fish species like sturgeons. For lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens populations in the Lower St. Lawrence and Ottawa river systems, knowledge about spawning sites has been documented primarily in the grey literature, unpublished reports, or notes, with very little published in peer-reviewed literature

Several studies have shown that large, experimental additions of nitrate (NO3) to eutrophic systems can mitigate large populations of nuisance cyanobacteria and that high NO3 concentrations can oxidize anoxic sediments. These studies are consistent with observations from numerous aquatic systems across a broad trophic range showing development of reduced surficial sediments precedes the formation of

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) impose major costs on aquatic ecosystems worldwide, including the Laurentian Great Lakes. Microbial consumers, including fungi, can have important interactions with bloom-forming algae and cyanobacteria, although relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between fungi and HABs. We examined changes in the aquatic fungal community coincident with the occurrence

In response to generations of inequitable research to/for Indigenous communities, many have and are developing research practices that center Indigenous priorities. In this paper, we share the Seasons of Research framework developed by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and University collaborators. First, we outline the scholarship that provides the foundations for research and being researchers in

Lake charr exhibit morphological diversity in large North American lakes, largely attributed to habitat partitioning. Bathythermal habitats of lean lake charr have been assessed but remain largely unknown for other lake charr ecotypes. Popup satellite archival tags (PSATs) were used to determine depth and temperature profiles of lean (n = 15), siscowet (n = 16) and redfin (n = 3) lake charr ecotypes

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This paper investigates the hydro-climatic reasons behind the desiccation of the Hamun Lakes in the Iran-Afghanistan border. We analyzed changes in the flow of the Hirmand River (90 percent of the total inflow to the lakes) at the international border, and precipitation over this river’s sub-basin during 1960–2016 by calculating standardized indices for precipitation (SPI) and discharge (SDI). We applied

Many coastal ecosystems, including those of the Laurentian Great Lakes, suffer from various natural and anthropogenic stressors. Given that multiple stressors often concomitantly impact ecosystems, it may be difficult to disentangle which stressors are most influential. Upper trophic level communities, such as fish assemblages, can provide insights to the influence of diverse stressors as they may

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Stable isotope (deuterium – 2H and oxygen-18 – 18O) surveys of water in Lake Ladoga and several rivers and small lakes within its watershed were conducted during 2012–2018. Over these 6 years, specific spatial and time differences in water isotope composition of Ladoga and small water bodies and streams were found. These differences depended firstly, on wetland type and the lakes distribution on the

This paper describes the creation of an environmentally conscious community group, the Great River Network, and the role that it has played in the remediation and restoration process as part of one of the Great Lakes environmental programs. Community engagement was initiated in the region as part of the Remedial Action Plan for the Area of Concern at Cornwall/Akwesasne/Massena within the Upper St.

Studies of the effectiveness of Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) call for the prioritization of placemaking and broadening of the definition of stakeholders. This paper argues that such stakeholder groups should include local historians, archivists, and art-or-architectural historians whose knowledge of local, place-based initiatives and familiarity with the built and visual landscape offer invaluable

Coastal wetlands of the Laurentian Great Lakes are diverse and productive ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services, but are threatened by anthropogenic factors, including nutrient input, land-use change, invasive species, and climate change. In this study, we examined one component of wetland ecosystem structure – phytoplankton biomass – using the proxy metric of water column chlorophyll-a measured

Drivers of lower food web composition and productivity in Lake Ontario have undergone extensive changes in the last 40 years, including nutrient abatement, fluctuations in planktivores (Alewife), and invasion by dreissenid mussels and predatory cladocerans. Temporally intensive long-term index stations are critical for understanding these drivers and interpreting the results of periodic lake-wide spatially

Freshwater whitefishes, Salmonidae Coregoninae, are cold stenothermic fishes of ecological and socio-economic importance in northern hemisphere lakes that are warming in response to climate change. To address the effect of warming waters on coregonine reproduction we experimentally evaluated different embryo incubation temperatures on post-hatching survival, growth, and critical thermal maximum of

We examined drivers of water quality during 2007–2013 in a region of Lake Ontario influenced by various anthropogenic inputs and natural influences. Nutrient concentrations generally declined from shoreline to offshore, with mean concentrations approaching background after 1 km from shore. N species were an exception to this overall pattern, often with higher concentrations coincident with a mid-nearshore

Revitalization of natural capital amenities at the Great Lakes waterfront can result from sediment remediation, habitat restoration, climate resilience projects, brownfield reuse, economic redevelopment and other efforts. Practical indicators are needed to assess the cultural, health, and socioeconomic benefits of these investments. We compiled U.S. census-tract scale data for five Great Lakes communities:

This study aims to investigate how the hydrological phase in a flood pulse dominated system, Tonle Sap Lake (TSL), affects the chemical form and bioavailability of P. For this purpose, we conducted extensive field campaigns under different hydrological phases: low-water (LW), rising-water (RW), high-water (HW), and falling-water (FW) phases from December 2016 to September 2017. The TSL ecosystem distinctly

We investigated several common, needle-shaped diatoms to better characterize the taxonomy of the genus Fragilaria in the Laurentian Great Lakes. We conducted diatom morphometric analysis facilitated by SEM and LM imaging on samples collected as a part of the USEPA’s long-term biological monitoring program. We resolved several decades-long taxonomic problems in the Great Lakes. The results indicated

Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes lying in the Albertine Rift. It provides livelihoods to 5.7 million people living in the two riparian countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda. Lake Kivu is currently experiencing numerous stressors, including fish habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, weak governance and law enforcement as well as conflict

Determination of trace element levels (arsenic, As; cadmium, Cd; cobalt, Co; chromium, Cr; copper, Cu; iron, Fe; lead, Pb; manganese, Mn; nickel, Ni; selenium, Se; and zinc, Zn) in the edible part (muscle) of golden gray mullet (Liza aurata: Mugilidae) and the potential health risk from consuming this fish were assessed. Sixty fish were caught by beach seine along the south-central shoreline of the

As extreme climatic events, such as heatwaves and storms, become more frequent in response to changing climates, understanding the role climatic events play on water quality is essential. Here, we use water quality monitoring data collected from the nearshore of Lake Ontario between 2000 and 2018 to ask: i) which sites in the nearshore of Lake Ontario have statistically extreme water quality conditions

Natural gradients in temperature, nutrient loading, and primary productivity contribute to broad scale regional differences in the food web structure of large lakes, such as Lake Michigan. These factors influence spatial patterns of primary production and resource reliance of high trophic level consumers. Secondary consumers, such as larval fish and predatory zooplankton represent an important intermediate