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GREAT LAKES PLANKTON PROGRAM
Citation:
Impact/Purpose:
This monitoring is intended to fulfill the provisions of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement calling for periodic monitoring of the lakes to:
1.assess compliance with jurisdictional control requirements;
2.provide information on non-achievement of agreed upon water quality objectives;
3.evaluate water quality trends over time; and
4.identify emerging problems in the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem.
Description:
Phytoplankton, which have short carbon turnover rates, are sensitive to water quality conditions and grazing by zooplankton, and thus respond rapidly to perturbations of the lake ecosystem. The determination of phytoplankton abundance and species composition is one method to trace long-term changes in lakes. Similarly, whether aquatic ecosystems are perturbed by changes in the top predator fish cascade down the food web or by nutrients or other stressors that are expressed from the first trophic level upward, the zooplankton are sensitive integrators of such changes.
URLs/Downloads:
GREAT LAKES PLANKTON PROGRAMRESULTS FROM GLNPO'S BIOLOGICAL OPEN WATER SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM OF THE LAURENTIAN GREAT LAKES 1999 (PDF, NA pp, 800 KB, about PDF)