Great Lakes Commission

Abstract Aquatic ecosystems support size structured food webs, wherein predator‐prey body sizes span orders of magnitude. As such, these food webs are replete with extremely generalized feeding strategies, especially among the larger bodied, higher trophic position taxa. The movement scale of aquatic organisms also generally increases with body size and trophic position. Together, these body size, mobility, and foraging relationships suggest that organisms lower in the food web generate relatively distinct energetic pathways by feeding over smaller spatial areas. Concurrently, the potential capacity for generalist foraging and spatial coupling of these pathways often increases, on average, moving up the food web toward higher trophic levels. We argue that these attributes make for a food web architecture that is inherently ‘adaptive’ in its response to environmental conditions. This is because variation in lower trophic level dynamics is dampened by the capacity of predators to flexibly alter their foraging behavior. We argue that empirical, theoretical, and applied research needs to embrace this inherently adaptive architecture if we are to understand the relationship between structure and function in the face of ongoing environmental change. Toward this goal, we discuss empirical patterns in the structure of lake food webs to suggest that ecosystems change consistently, from individual traits to the structure of whole food webs, under changing environmental conditions. We then explore an empirical example to reveal that explicitly unfolding the mechanisms that drive these adaptive responses offers insight into how human‐driven impacts, such as climate change, invasive species, and fisheries harvest, ought to influence ecosystem structure and function (e.g., stability, secondary productivity, maintenance of major energy pathways). We end by arguing that such a directed food web research program promises a powerful across‐scale framework for more effective ecosystem monitoring and management.

A growing body of literature supports microbial symbiosis as a foundational principle for the competitive success of invasive plant species. Further exploration of the relationships between invasive species and their associated microbiomes, as well as the interactions with the microbiomes of native species, can lead to key new insights into invasive success and potentially new and effective control approaches. In this manuscript, we review microbial relationships with plants, outline steps necessary to develop invasive species control strategies that are based on those relationships, and use the invasive plant species Phragmites australis (common reed) as an example of how development of microbial-based control strategies can be enhanced using a collective impact approach. The proposed science agenda, developed by the Collaborative for Microbial Symbiosis and Phragmites Management, contains a foundation of sequential steps and mutually-reinforcing tasks to guide the development of microbial-based control strategies for Phragmites and other invasive species. Just as the science of plant-microbial symbiosis can be transferred for use in other invasive species, so too can the model of collective impact be applied to other avenues of research and management.

Great Lakes environmental agencies want to build the capacity to understand microbe threats and develop responses and mitigation plans in advance of crises such as large fish kills. We developed a collaborative plan for monitoring microbes across the Great Lakes of North America to meet practical needs with the latest science and testing technology. The goal was to build understanding of harmful microbes and be rapid, relevant, and robust in addressing threats. The program was oriented for adaptability to changing threats and will target areas of human activity, especially shipping ports and invasion hotspots. Sampling will be aimed at fish and water with application of molecular testing procedures that will allow rapid, efficient, and very sensitive detection of microbes. Compared to other programs with similar aims, our agenda is broader in scope, focuses on building knowledge, uses a representative sampling design, and will provide findings for proactive management and response planning. The reliance on molecular testing procedures, sample archiving, and rapid and broadly distributed results distinguishes our approach from the other similar programs. Fitting microbe monitoring into the Great Lakes environmental management agenda is expected to add an important new dimension to ecosystem monitoring and yield new knowledge of importance for management.

Great Lakes coastal wetlands have critically important ecological values and functions. However, coordinated monitoring of coastal wetland quantity and quality is lacking. The Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Consortium was formed in 2000 to address this critical need for North American Great Lakes. This paper presents the background, framework, objectives, and current and future work of the Consortium. The Consortium consists of wetlands researchers and managers from the United States and Canada. Several Consortium members present papers on specific topics in this journal issue. The Consortium's goal is to design a plan for implementing a long-term monitoring program focused on a concise set of environmental indicators. A year of development work and a year of field work have been completed to date. The Consortium is currently working toward final development and implementation of the monitoring program.

Web Sites are becoming mainstream, necessary components of every organization's mandate, whether that organization is governmental, academic or commercially based. With this popularity comes an increasing demand for intelligent web design: simple, attractive, easy-to-navigate style that balances well-written content with useful web technologies and freshness that will keep people coming back. The Great Lakes Information Network (GLIN) has been employing these principles of Web design since its beginnings in 1993, focusing first on supplying useful content and secondly, ensuring that the useful content is well-organized and easy-to-navigate. By forming online partnerships with hundreds of groups involved in management of the Great Lakes ecosystem, GLIN represents a united Web presence for the entire region.