Focus Area 5: Foundations for Future Restoration Actions - Objective 5.2

Objective, Commitments & Measures

Objective:

5.2. Conduct targeted science to inform and assess Great Lakes restoration.

Commitments:

5.2.a. Assess Great Lakes ecosystem health and implement interdisciplinary science projects that will guide Great Lakes restoration and help protect the lakes from current and future threats.

Measures:

5.2.1. Annual Great Lakes monitoring conducted; interdisciplinary science projects and assessments implemented to support the GLRI and Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative, lake-specific priorities identified in LAMPs and other GLWQA activities.

Background

Science is a key foundation to any successful ecosystem restoration and protection program. Assessing the overall health of the Great Lakes and identifying and investigating the most significant problems affecting their heath is essential for resource managers to be able to take actions to address chemical, biological and physical stressors.

Under Action Plan III, GLRI federal agencies and their partners implemented projects to enhance understanding of the drivers of harmful algal bloom toxicity and the impacts of current and future changes in lake levels, ice coverage, waves and surge, and sediment transport on coastal resources. Enhanced Great Lakes monitoring and research activities were implemented through the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative to generate data and information that filled critical data gaps in each Great Lake and advanced the management of Great Lakes resources while confronting the challenges of eutrophication, contaminants, invasive species, habitat loss and climate change.

Under Action Plan IV, GLRI federal agencies and their partners will continue to support targeted science projects and implement programs that will help track progress toward GLRI long-term goals and inform future restoration actions. There will be continued focus on priority issues such as HABs and coastal resilience, but also new efforts such as ecosystem monitoring in winter. There will also be continued support for assessing the health of the Great Lakes through long-term monitoring programs and CSMI.