Edge effects: Insights gained from a decade of interdisciplinary modeling projects in Lake Erie
Abstract
Scientists have long been exploring ways to help improve the health of Lake Erie, which has faced a long history of pollution, especially from excess nutrients. Despite political and environmental success in addressing point source pollution that reduced algal blooms and hypoxia in the 1970s and 80s, Lake Erie is now faced with a changing climate, altered nutrient regimes, and a resurgence of blooms and hypoxia that once again threaten the most productive of the Great Lakes. To address the complicated drivers affecting Lake Erie's water quality, multiple teams of scientists from various fields have come together to try to understand the reasons for these changes as well as to find solutions to address the resurgent problems. Our team has participated in four separate, interdisciplinary modeling projects that have attempted to evaluate and predict changes in Lake Erie and its watershed. We will present our successes and failures as we have attempted to understand this complex and dynamic system, including one of our greatest challenges in connecting the scales of our models. Additionally, we will identify the evolution of our modeling approaches and opportunities to make new advances in future interdisciplinary modeling efforts. With continued effort and evolution, these efforts can help address large, complex environmental problems that affect the economy, public health, and ecosystem vitality.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMPA23D..06M
- Keywords:
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- 0240 Public health;
- GEOHEALTHDE: 1910 Data assimilation;
- integration and fusion;
- INFORMATICSDE: 4327 Resilience;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUES