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GLERL 2006 Milestone Reports
< GLERL 2006 Milestone main page
GOAL: Ecosystem
Scientist: Dr. Stuart Ludsin (GLERL)
NOAA Performance Objective: Access, model and forecast ecosystem resources for management decisions.
Ecosystem Research Program Performance Measure: PM4: Number of coastal, marine, and Great Lakes ecosystems adequately characterized for management.
OAR Performance Measure: Research to improve our understanding of the factors affecting ecosystems and the success of ecosystem approaches to management.
NOAA Program: Ecosystem Research
Milestone: Complete first field season for the International Field years for Lake Erie (IFYLE) program.
Purpose: A long-term goal of NOAA is to provide enhanced ecosystem forecasts that predict patterns of biological, physical, and chemical variables in response to natural and human-induced changes to the system (e.g., extreme natural events, climate change, land and resource use, pollution, invasive species, fisheries impacts), across a variety of spatial and temporal scales. These forecasts ultimately should benefit coastal communities, including the Great Lakes, by providing the foundation for 1) improved decision-making for resource stewardship, 2) mitigation of potentially hazardous human activities, 3) reduced impacts of natural hazards, 4) enhanced communication between scientists and managers, and overall, 5) more effective prioritization of science.
It is well recognized that water quality and ecosystem health issues persist within the Great Lakes that are of concern to the user community and researchers, and which remain a challenge to Great Lakes resource management. These include, but are not limited to, harmful algal blooms (HABs), reduced oxygen availability (hypoxia/anoxia), and exotic species, all of which have the potential to negatively influence food web dynamics, native biodiversity, and biological production (e.g., fisheries yield). Clearly, development of tools that provide reliable forecasts of the Great Lakes ecosystem and its chemical, biological, and physical subsystems would help resource agencies choose among potential management options.
To improve our ability to provide reliable ecosystem forecasts in the Great Lakes, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory has been working toward development of an integrated (multi-agency), multidisciplinary research program for Lake Erie that deals with important such management issues as harmful algal blooms, hypoxia/anoxia, and fish production. Four attributes make Lake Erie ideal for piloting the development of an ecosystem-forecasting framework. First, although Lake Erie is large, it is small relative to coastal marine systems and the other Great Lakes, so cost-effective field sampling can be performed to test hypotheses over the entire Lake. Second, a wealth of historical monitoring and research data has been compiled for this system, which can be used immediately for model parameterization/calibration, validation, and ecological scenario testing. Third, several predictive physical models exist for Lake Erie (watershed-hydrology and hydrodynamics models). Finally, a large research and policy infrastructure (e.g., Lake Erie Millennium Network, Lake Erie Lakewide Management Plan) already exists, which will facilitate our effort to develop truly integrative, multidisciplinary programs aimed at conducting the needed research for ecosystem forecasting.
Efforts and Results (to date): This effort to develop a large-scale, integrative research program on Lake Erie was begun this past winter with NOAA Ship Support to charter one or more large research vessels. In turn, the International Field Years on Lake Erie (IFYLE) program was initiated. This program derives largely from research hypotheses, ideas, and needs generated at a large, international Lake Erie Science Planning Workshop, hosted by NOAA-GLERL on March 4-5, 2004, which discussed three important issues: 1) anoxia/hypoxia, 2) HABs, and 3) coupling physics with forecasts of fish production. A description of this workshop’s goals and accomplishments can be found at http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/ifyle/workshops/workshop_final2004.pdf). More specifically, the three primary objectives of the IFYLE program are to:
- Quantify the spatial extent of hypoxia across the lake, and gather
information that can help forecast its timing, duration, and extent;
- Assess the ecological consequences of hypoxia to the Lake Erie food web, including phytoplankton, bacteria, microzooplankton, mesozooplankton, and fish;
- Identify factors that control the timing, extent, and duration of HAB (including toxin) formation in Lake Erie, as well as enhance our ability to use remote sensing as a tool to rapidly map HAB distributions in the lake.
The IFYLE program has become the largest international, multidisciplinary research effort of its kind in Lake Erie’s history, costing ~$5 million and involving ~ 45 scientists from NOAA, academia, and private institutions throughout North America, Canada, and Europe. This program can truly be considered integrative, given involvement by numerous U.S. and Canadian universities and federal, state, and provincial agencies, and serves as an example of how NOAA and other federal agencies are fulfilling the Presidential Executive Order (#13340) to execute the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration among agencies. Vessel support came primarily from NOAA Ship Support, US EPA-Great Lakes National Program Office, and NOAA-GLERL, whereas funds for external researchers were provided by the National Sea Grant College Program and the Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania Sea Grant College programs. Environment Canada deployed several moorings to collect physical data in collaboration with this program, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided continued dock space for NOAA vessels. In addition, the project has been offered in-kind support (e.g., historical data, technical assistance with aging fish, vessel support) from all of the state and provincial fishery management agencies on the lake, including the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
During 2005, IFYLE program field sampling occurred during May through October (14 to 23 d per month), using two primary research vessels: the U.S. EPA-Great Lakes National Program Office’s Lake Guardian and NOAA-GLERL’s Laurentian. Four cruises typically occurred per month, with different types of data collected on each cruise. On one cruise leg, 55 stations were sampled for nutrients, size-fractionated chlorophyll, microbial communities, and other limnological characteristics (e.g., temperature, dissolved oxygen, light levels). It was these cruises that provided an indication of the maximum size of the low oxygen zone in Lake Erie during 2005 (Figure 1). Two other cruises focused on sampling fish and their zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrate prey, using a combination of sophisticated technologies (e.g., fish acoustics and a towed, undulating sensor package with optical plankton counter, CTD, fluorometer, transmissometer, and Par sensor) and more traditional sampling (e.g., trawling, gillnetting, zooplankton pumping and nets, benthic Ponar grabs). Because information on fish (e.g., distribution of biomass, diets, condition/health) and their prey will have been collected both day and night before, during, and after formation of Lake Erie’s low-oxygen zone (Figure 1), as well as in areas inside and outside of it, we will have a great opportunity to assess how oxygen availability influences fish movement, feeding, and growth (production). The final cruise leg was devoted to collecting additional benthic macroinvertebrate samples, doing sediment trap and box-core work, and deploying and maintaining an array of observational buoys and moorings used to quantify spatial and temporal variation in physical attributes (e.g., dissolved oxygen, temperature, and light). Overall, > 130 days of ship time were logged in the field by the Lake Guardian and Laurentian and more than 2,100 people days were spent at sea on Lake Erie, with individual cruises supporting 8-24 scientists.
The remainder of 2005 and all of 2006 will be devoted to sample processing, data analysis, testing and refining hypotheses, and building synthetic models that can be used for both understanding and forecasting purposes. During 2007, we expect to conduct another intensive field season, with more focused sampling objectives.
Figure 1. Preliminary estimation of dissolved oxygen concentrations (mg/l) in Lake Erie during September 7-11, 2005. Sampling stations are denoted with black dots. Note the large area of bottom hypoxia (i.e., dissolved oxygen levels < 4 mg/l) in the central basin, which can be stressful to fish. The thickness of this low-oxygen layer ranged from 1 to 7 m above the lake bottom (surface waters had sufficient oxygen). Data were collected as part of the IFYLE program, coordinated by scientists at NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This figure is not to be used without the permission of Stuart Ludsin ( ) or Tom Johengen ( ).
Customer(s): Ultimately, the information obtained through this collaborative, multidisciplinary research program will be used to improve decision-making by enhancing the ability of resource managers to understand and forecast variation in hypoxia and its ecological impacts (e.g., fish production). Potential beneficiaries of IFYLE program research include the U.S. EPA, Environment Canada, U.S.G.S., and all of the state and provincial fishery management agencies on the lake, including the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Additionally, because hypoxia is a problem in other U.S. coastal systems (e.g., Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay), IFYLE program findings should provide information valuable to managers and researchers outside of the Great Lakes Basin.
Cause Factors (if milestone not met): N/A
Revised Completion Date (if milestone not met): N/A
Last updated: 2006-04-12 mbl