Community engagement and the importance of partnerships within the Great Lakes Areas of Concern program: A mixed-methods case study

The Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOC) program was created through amendments to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) in 1987 to restore contaminated sites using an ecosystem-based approach. This program represents one of the first instances of ecosystem-based management (EBM) in the Great Lakes region with a specific focus on the inclusion of the public and local stakeholders in the process. Despite official language incorporating EBM in the AOC program, implementation of these practices has not been consistent across AOCs given differences in local arrangements of Public Advisory Councils (PACs), approaches to community engagement, and environmental problems. To better understand community engagement in these complex AOCs, this research investigated community, PAC, and state agency perspectives in three AOCs in Michigan: the Kalamazoo River, Saginaw River and Bay, and Rouge River AOCs. We gathered data through interviews, focus groups, and participatory observations with community members, PAC members, and state officials in each AOC. Findings indicate that communities in these areas have minimal connection to the AOC program and PACs. Community members tended to have greater connection to local organizations that provide a variety of opportunities for community members to engage with their environment in ways they value. To better connect the public to the AOC program, PACs may benefit from intentional partnerships with community organizations to increase community engagement. To consistently bolster community engagement in AOCs, we further recommend that state agencies provide additional resources to improve connection to local communities.     

Tweeting the Laurentian Great Lakes: A community opinion analysis about Great Lakes areas as assessed through mentions on Twitter

Accounting for community opinions of environmental restoration is critical both for planning and evaluating these initiatives. While considerable research assesses the value of restoration through economic metrics focusing on expenditures or preferences for ecosystem services, these metrics may not adequately account for the sociocultural services that ecosystems provide communities, such as mental and physical health or recreational opportunities. To address this challenge, we explored the use of social media data to assess online discourse communities’ opinions about ecosystem services through a case study of Twitter mentions of sites targeted for restoration through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). While there is evidence of the economic and ecological benefits of GLRI, little is known about how these benefits at sites targeted for funding are perceived by the public. From April through October 2019, we collected 40,000 tweets that mentioned an Area of Concern or a Great Lakes National Park that received GLRI funding. We used a mixed-methodological approach combining tweet content and sentiment analysis to determine themes of discussion and characterize online discourse communities’ opinions around these topics. Half of all tweets were about one of three Areas of Concern, and recreation was the most discussed theme with an overall positive sentiment. A metric accounting for the number of tweets and the sentiment of tweets was derived to understand community opinions of restoration at these areas. Our findings demonstrate the potential of social media data mining as a tool for examining online conversations about and engagement with the Great Lakes.     

A brief history of the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office's water quality survey

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) water quality survey (WQS) constitutes the longest-running, most extensive monitoring of water quality and the lower trophic level biota of the Laurentian Great Lakes, and has been instrumental in tracking shifts in nutrients and the lower food web over the past several decades. The initial impetus for regular monitoring of the Great Lakes was provided by the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) which asked the parties to develop monitoring and surveillance programs to ensure compliance with the goals of the agreement. The resulting monitoring plan, eventually known as the Great Lakes International Surveillance Plan (GLISP), envisioned a nine-year rotation of intensive surveys of the five lakes. A broadening of the scope of the GLWQA in 1978 and the completion of the first nine-year cycle of sampling, prompted reappraisals of the GLISP. During this pause, and using knowledge gained from GLISP, GLNPO initiated an annual WQS with the narrower focus of tracking water quality changes and plankton communities in the offshore waters of the lakes. Beginning in 1983 with lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, the WQS added Lake Ontario in 1986 and Lake Superior in 1992, evolving into its current form in which all five lakes are sampled twice a year. The WQS is unique in that all five lakes are sampled by one agency, using one vessel and one principal laboratory for each parameter group, and represents an invaluable resource for managing and understanding the Great Lakes.     

The 2017 African Great Lakes Conference: Conservation and development in a changing climate

In May 2017, the African Great Lakes community convened for a region-wide conference in Entebbe, Uganda. The African Great Lakes Conference (AGLC) focused on 6 regionally-important themes, and 300+ attendees presented over 100 talks and posters. The AGLC culminated in the adoption of a set of Conference Resolutions designed to direct the future of African Great Lakes conservation and management. As an Introduction to this Journal of Great Lakes Research special section on African Great Lakes, we report on the impetus for the African Great Lakes Conference as well as discuss three major advances and investments that were a direct result of conference resolutions adopted at the meeting. First, we present the AGLC Resolutions, a set of management issues and solutions developed at the conference. Second, we discuss the African Great Lakes Conference Fund, a conservation fund that has awarded $500,000 USD to launch four new initiatives. Finally, we describe African Great Lakes Inform, a knowledge management platform designed to promote collaboration in the region. The AGLC in general, and these three major conference outcomes specifically, provide a set of basic building blocks to advance partnerships, research and capacity in the African Great Lakes region.     

Stewardship after delisting: Sustaining long-term progress in Michigan’s Areas of Concern

The Michigan Areas of Concern (AOC) program has made significant progress in recent years following the influx of external funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Great Lakes Legacy Act. However, as more AOCs near delisting, community members from Michigan Public Advisory Councils (PACs) are concerned that the loss of programmatic funding will constrain their ability to sustain key public engagement and long-term restoration progress. In order to understand the local community perspectives surrounding delisting, our study presents findings and recommendations that emerged from interviews with Michigan PAC members. We found that PACs recognize the need to transition away from projects with a short-term focus and instead prioritize longer-term, holistic strategies that could help catalyze effective public engagement and produce transformative community revitalization. This study’s recommendations for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) include: (1) dedicating more time to post-delisting planning, (2) enhancing communication efforts with PACs, and (3) strengthening long-term public engagement efforts and PAC organizational capacity. These recommendations add to the growing literature supporting the value of local community perspectives and social dimensions of environmental restoration and may also provide transferable insights to communities outside of Michigan that are currently engaged in similar complex, multi-stakeholder environmental restoration projects.     

A decision support tool for measuring and tracking the social benefits of water resources in Michigan coastal communities

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 Dashboard that would assist planners, decision makers, business leaders, and residents in defining, reviewing, and tracking community vibrancy. The study was supported by the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes under the 2016 Michigan Water Strategy and funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.Four coastal communities in Michigan – Alpena, Manistee, Port Huron, and Sault Ste. Marie – participated in the study. These communities were selected because of their long economic and cultural histories with the Great Lakes, all are similar in size, and all have conducted relatively recent water-related resource restoration projects and were willing to participate.This study demonstrates how community engagement can result in measurable social indicators of community vibrancy that focus on the use of and connectedness to water resources in the Great Lakes Region. The study resulted in an innovative online visualization toolkit that provides opportunities for public review of local water projects and their resultant contributions to community vibrancy. The Community Vibrancy Dashboard provides timely and visible feedback to local leaders, planners, and decision makers on past and future projects and a means of tracking progress in meeting community vibrancy goals.     

U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office monitoring of the Laurentian Great Lakes: Insights from 40 years of data collection

The U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) implements long-term monitoring programs to assess Great Lakes ecosystem status and trends for many interrelated ecosystem components, including offshore water quality as well as offshore phytoplankton, zooplankton and benthos; chemical contaminants in air, sediments, and predator fish; hypoxia in Lake Erie's central basin; and coastal wetland health. These programs are conducted in fulfillment of Clean Water Act mandates and Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement commitments. This special issue presents findings from GLNPO's Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program, Great Lakes Water Quality Monitoring Program, Lake Erie Dissolved Oxygen Monitoring Program, Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, Great Lakes Fish Monitoring and Surveillance Program, and Great Lakes Sediment Surveillance Program. These GLNPO programs have generated temporal and spatial datasets for all five Great Lakes that form the basis for assessment of the state of these lakes, including trends in nutrients, key biological indicators, and contaminants in air, sediments and fish. These datasets are used by researchers and managers across the Great Lakes basin for investigating physical, chemical and biological drivers of ongoing ecosystem changes; some of these analyses are presented in this special issue, along with discussion of new methods and approaches for monitoring.     

Reflections on social and organizational dimensions of Great Lakes remediation,restoration, and revitalization

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.     

Assessing the impacts of light synthetic crude oil on microbial communities within Laurentian Great Lakes’ sediment habitats

The ability of microbial communities to respond to and degrade crude oil in marine environments is well understood, yet fewer studies have examined freshwater environments. The Laurentian Great Lakes are one of the world’s largest surface freshwater sources. A pipeline that transports light synthetic crude oil crosses between two of the Great Lakes (the Straits of Mackinac, connecting Lakes Michigan and Huron, U.S.A.), and there is uncertainty on how the various habitats within this region would respond to accidental crude oil exposure. In this study, sediment microbial communities from three distinct habitats (coastal beach, freshwater coastal wetland, and Lake Michigan deep sediments) were used in microcosm experiments to document their community response (16S rRNA gene sequencing) to light synthetic crude oil (headspace gas chromatography). Microbial community structure (beta diversity) was impacted after exposure to crude oil in each of the habitats examined, with each habitat showing a different level of resistance to crude oil. Additionally, within each habitat, beta diversity distinguished sub-communities that increased in abundance in experimental treatments. Specifically, an increase in total abundance of Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, or Gammaproteobacteria was observed in microcosms exposed to crude oil regardless of habitat type. Methane, a potential hydrocarbon degradation byproduct, was observed in the headspace of the microcosms after exposure to crude oil, which may indicate methanogenic hydrocarbon degradation. These data suggest Great Lakes freshwater microbial communities will respond differently to crude oil exposure but may have shared community members involved in resisting and degrading light synthetic crude oil.     

Molecular characterization of bacterial communities associated with sediments in the Laurentian Great Lakes

The Laurentian Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem comprises a series of interconnected lakes exhibiting wide spatial differences in hydrogeochemistry, productivity, and allochthonous inputs of nutrients and xenobiotics. Bacterial communities associated with offshore sediments in this ecosystem have been rarely studied. We evaluated bacterial communities associated with sediments from 10 locations in four of the five Great Lakes (Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Ontario) by generating16S rRNA pyrosequence libraries. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed the presence of 26 bacterial phyla and proteobacterial classes among Great Lakes sediment samples. Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria were the most abundant groups of bacteria. Redundancy analysis was used to examine the role of sediment properties, including depth and chemical composition, in shaping bacterial community structure. One sample from Lake Huron was distinctly different from all other samples. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the sample contained greater abundances of groups of bacteria associated with polluted environments. This study constitutes the most extensive examination of bacteria associated with Laurentian Great Lakes sediments and sheds useful insight into the microbial ecology of the Great Lakes.     

Results from the U.S. EPA's Biological Open Water Surveillance Program of the Laurentian Great Lakes: I. Introduction and Phytoplankton Results

The Great Lakes National Program Office of the U.S. EPA has been conducting biological monitoring of the Laurentian Great Lakes since 1983. This paper presents synoptic survey data of phytoplankton communities from all five lakes. These communities were highly diverse, each lake typi-cally supporting over 100 species during both the spring and summer surveys. Much of that diversity was contributed by diatoms, which dominated the plankton of all lakes except Lake Superior in the spring. Summer communities shifted away from diatoms, toward chrysophytes in the upper lakes and chloro-phytes in the lower lakes. Ordination analyses indicated the close similarity of communities in the upper lakes, in particular Lakes Huron and Michigan, and a diverse range of communities in Lake Erie. Floristically, Lake Ontario was fundamentally different from all other lakes.     

Widespread prevalence of hypoxia and the classification of hypoxic conditions in the Laurentian Great Lakes

Aquatic hypoxia within the Laurentian Great Lakes has contributed to various adverse ecological consequences and stimulated research interest in recent decades. An analysis of published peer-reviewed journal articles from 2000 to 2020 demonstrates an increasing trend of studies related to hypoxia in the Laurentian Great Lakes. However, the majority of these studies (78%) focus on Lake Erie and in particular the well-documented hypolimnetic hypoxic conditions that develop in the central basin of Lake Erie. This hypoxic zone is relatively large (up to 1.5 million ha), has substantial ecological effects, and motivates monitoring programs and water quality improvement initiatives. Nonetheless, the hypoxic zone in the central basin of Lake Erie is only one of over twenty documented hypoxic zones in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Moreover, hypoxic conditions in the Great Lakes are quite diverse. Here, we define and characterize a four-fold classification of Great Lakes hypoxic conditions: 1) hypolimnetic hypoxia, 2) over-winter hypoxia, 3) diel hypoxia, and 4) episodic hypoxia. We suggest that Great Lakes research and monitoring programs should seek to more broadly document hypoxic conditions and develop models to predict the temporal and spatial occurrence of hypoxia. Such efforts are particularly timely as future climatic conditions contributing to warmer temperatures, longer and more intense stratified periods, increased spring nutrient loading and more variable allocthonous inputs are expected to exacerbate three of the four hypoxic conditions described for the Great Lakes (hypolimnetic, diel, and episodic hypoxia).     

Influence of lake levels on water extent,interspersion, and marsh birds in Great Lakes coastal wetlands

Coastal wetlands in the Laurentian Great Lakes undergo frequent, sometimes dramatic, physical changes at varying spatial and temporal scales. Changes in lake levels and the juxtaposition of vegetation and open water greatly influence biota that use coastal wetlands. Several regional studies have shown that changes in vegetation and lake levels lead to predictable changes in the composition of coastal wetland bird communities. We report new findings of wetland bird community changes at a broader scale, covering the entire Great Lakes basin. Our results indicate that water extent and interspersion increased in coastal wetlands across the Great Lakes between low (2013) and high (2018) lake-level years, although variation in the magnitude of change occurred within and among lakes. Increases in water extent and interspersion resulted in a general increase in marsh-obligate and marsh-facultative bird species richness. Species like American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), common gallinule (Gallinula galeata), American coot (Fulica americana), sora (Porzana carolina), Virginia rail (Rallus limicola), and pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) were significantly more abundant during high water years. Lakes Huron and Michigan showed the greatest increase in water extent and interspersion among the five Great Lakes while Lake Michigan showed the greatest increase in marsh-obligate bird species richness. These results reinforce the idea that effective management, restoration, and assessment of wetlands must account for fluctuations in lake levels. Although high lake levels generally provide the most favorable conditions for wetland bird species, variation in lake levels and bird species assemblages create ecosystems that are both spatially and temporally dynamic.     

Forecasting impacts of climate change on Great Lakes surface water temperatures

Temperature influences the rates of many ecosystem processes. A number of recent studies have found evidence of systematic increases in Great Lakes surface water temperatures. Our study aims to construct empirical relationships between surface water temperatures and local air temperatures that can be used to estimate future water temperatures using future air temperatures generated by global climate models. Remotely sensed data were used to model lake-wide average surface water temperature patterns during the open-water period in Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Surface water temperatures typically exhibit linear warming through the spring, form a plateau in mid-summer and then exhibit linear cooling in fall. Lake-specific warming and cooling rates vary little from year to year while plateau values vary substantially across years. These findings were used to construct a set of lake-specific empirical models linking surface water temperatures to local air temperatures for the period 1995–2006. Hindcasted whole-lake water temperatures from these models compare favourably to independently collected offshore water temperatures for the period 1968–2002. Relationships linking offshore water temperatures to inshore water temperatures at specific sites are also described. Predictions of future climates generated by the Canadian Global Climate Model Version 2 (CGCM2) under two future greenhouse gas emission scenarios are used to scope future Great Lakes surface water temperatures: substantial increases are expected, along with increases in the duration of summer stratification.     

100 years of sea lampreys above Niagara Falls: A reflection on what happened and what we learned

In the one hundred years since sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) were discovered in Lake Erie, the species completed its invasion throughout the Great Lakes basin, contributed to the downfall of the commercial fishing industry, and served as a catalyst for the development of the collaborative fishery management regime that exists today. The sea lamprey invasion simultaneously caused wide-spread devastation while giving rise to a collective realization that the health of the Great Lakes would require ongoing cooperation among governments, scientists, and users of the resource. Since its inception, the effort to control sea lampreys in the Great Lakes has been defined by a “shoot for the moon” mentality. The desperation of communities directly harmed by the sea lamprey invasion, coupled with the determination and unyielding commitment to science by those tasked with addressing the problem, led to the formation of the only reported successful aquatic vertebrate invasive species control program at an ecosystem scale.     

Nearshore Community Characteristics Related to Shoreline Properties in the Great Lakes

Successful protection and restoration of Great Lakes nearshore ecosystems will likely rely on management of terrestrial resources along Great Lakes shorelines. However, relationships between biological communities and changing shoreline environmental properties are poorly understood. We sought to begin understanding the potential roles of shoreline geomorphological and land cover properties in structuring nearshore biological communities in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Despite high variability in densities (benthic macroinvertebrates and zooplankton) and catch per unit effort (CPUE, shallow water and nearshore fish) within and among lake areas, several biological community patterns emerged to suggest that nearshore aquatic communities respond to shoreline features via the influences of these features on nearshore substrate composition and stability. Benthic macroinvertebrate densities were not different between shoreline types, although they were generally lower at nearshore sites with less stable substrates. Shallow water fish CPUE and zooplankton densities were generally lower for nearshore areas adjacent to developed mid-bluff shorelines and sites characterized by less stable substrates. Larger fish CPUE appeared to be unresponsive to local shoreline and substrate properties of nearshore zones. The emergence of these patterns despite significant ecological differences among lake areas (e.g., productivity, community composition, etc.) suggests that shoreline development may have comparable influences on nearshore ecosystems throughout the Great Lakes, providing a terrestrialbased indicator of relative nearshore biological and ecological integrity.     

Associations between Breeding Marsh Bird Abundances and Great Lakes Hydrology

We used Great Lakes hydrologic data and bird monitoring data from the Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program from 1995–2002 to: 1) evaluate trends and patterns of annual change in May-July water levels for Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron-Michigan, 2) report on trends of relative abundance for birds breeding in Great Lakes coastal marshes, and 3) correlate basin-wide and lake-specific annual indices of bird abundance with Great Lakes water levels. From 1995–2002, average May, June, and July water levels in all lake basins showed some annual variation, but Lakes Erie and Huron-Michigan had identical annual fluctuation patterns and general water level declines. No trend was observed in Lake Ontario water levels over this period. Abundance for five of seven marsh birds in Lake Ontario wetlands showed no temporal trends, whereas abundance of black tern (Chlidonias niger) declined and that of swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) increased from 1995–2002. In contrast, abundances of American coot (Fulica americana), black tern, common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), marsh wren (Cistorthorus palustris), pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), sora (Porzana carolina), swamp sparrow, and Virginia rail (Rallus limicola) declined within marshes at Lakes Erie and Huron/Michigan from 1995–2002. Annual abundances of several birds we examined showed positive correlations with annual lake level changes in non-regulated Lakes Erie and Huron/Michigan, whereas most birds we examined in Lake Ontario coastal wetlands were not correlated with suppressed water level changes of this lake. Overall, our results suggest that long-term changes and annual water level fluctuations are important abiotic factors affecting abundance of some marsh-dependent birds in Great Lakes coastal marshes. For this reason, wetland bird population monitoring initiatives should consider using methods in sampling protocols, or during data analyses, to account for temporal and spatial components of hydrologic variability that affect wetlands and their avifauna.     

An appraisal of policy implementation deficits in the Great Lakes

Understanding of the complexities of both public policy implementation and Great Lakes restoration has grown in sophistication since the 1970s. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is the principal policy for reversing environmental decline in the region. Implementation of this and related policies, particularly by the federal governments, suffers from acute and chronic deficits that we summarily document. These policy implementation deficits will continue to frustrate efforts to revitalize the Great Lakes unless significant advances are made to design governance processes within the Great Lakes regime that accommodate the complexity of linked social and ecological systems. The 2010-2011 governmental process to renegotiate the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is a potent opportunity to begin to overcome institutional barriers to reducing policy deficits. We argue that the renegotiation must begin a reinvestment in remaking or reimagining Great Lakes institutions in a way that restores capacity, flexibility, and moral authority. Our purpose is to help provide a foundation for that discussion.     

Building a research network to better understand climate governance in the Great Lakes

Climate-driven disturbances threaten the sustainability of coastal communities in the Great Lakes Basin. Because such disturbances are unpredictable, their magnitude, number and intensity are changing, and they occur at varying temporal and spatial scales. Consequently, communities struggle to respond in effective ways. The expected intensification of climate-driven disturbances will require that community capacity and governance structures match the spatial and temporal scales of these disturbances, as the most sustainable social and economic systems will be those that can respond at similar frequencies to key natural system drivers. The Climate Governance Variability in the Great Lakes Research Coordination Network (CGVG-RCN) was recently established to address questions about the relationship between climate-driven disturbances and community response. The objective of this short communication is to introduce the ideas behind the CGVG-RCN, outline its goals, and facilitate engagements and collaboration with social and natural scientists interested in social-ecological systems in the Great Lakes Basin.     

Influence of river plumes on the distribution and composition of nearshore Lake Michigan fishes

River plumes form in coastal areas where tributaries mix with their receiving waters. Plume waters are enriched with terrestrial-derived nutrients from their watersheds creating hotspots of biological productivity. The biological importance of plumes scales with the size and persistence of the plume; therefore, large, persistent plumes are more important than small, transient plumes. To date, most studies of plumes have focused on assimilation of terrestrial-derived energy by aquatic species or lower-level food web effects, primarily in marine systems. Few studies have described fish communities near plume habitats and compared them to non-plume areas, especially for the numerous small plumes in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Here we demonstrate that small plumes in the main basin of Lake Michigan enhance local primary productivity and influence distribution and abundance of nearshore Great Lakes fishes. We found that plume fish communities were relatively depauperate and did not support higher biological diversity of fishes compared to non-plume areas. However, individual species including rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax, spottail shiner Notropis hudsonius, and white sucker Catostomus commersonii were more abundant around plumes. Our results demonstrate that small plumes in the main basin of Lake Michigan support highly localized hotspots of biological productivity and fish abundance, primarily within 2?km of river mouths.