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GLERL Biogeochemistry Research Program
General Background
Great Lakes and coastal ecosystems are continually subject to a series of stressors that may be transient, but repetitive in nature. These stressors are implicated in, or have the potential to cause, changes in the ecosystem they impact, by altering the processes that help determine and define the ecosystem's structure and function. Thus, the occurrence of such stressors gives rise to a need for scientific information and better understanding of the biogeochemical responses of ecosystems to increased or decreased nutrient loads, to human induced changes in the carbon cycle and climate, and to the introduction of toxic contaminants and their effects. This program focuses on the characteristics and rates of biogeochemical processes in ecosystems, the response to and alteration of these processes by anthropogenic stressors, and the record of biogeochemical alterations that may be contained in sediments.
Last updated: 2004-03-25 mbl