Foreword: Stressors and successes, Lake Ontario CSMI intensive year 2018

• Published in: Journal of Great Lakes research Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 261 - 263
• Main Authors: Watkins, James M., Rudstam, Lars G., Karatayev, Alexander Y., Currie, Warren J.S., Scofield, Anne E., Hollenhorst, Thomas P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-04-2022
• Subjects: CSMI; Great Lakes; Lake Ontario; Monitoring; CSMI; Lake Ontario; Monitoring; Great Lakes
• ISSN: 0380-1330
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jglr.2022.02.003

As the human population of the Lake Ontario basin continues to grow, targeted research and monitoring activities to inform adaptive management are increasingly important for protecting the Lake Ontario ecosystem. As the most downstream of the Great Lakes, the Lake Ontario ecosystem is under pressure from a wide range of stressors including chemical contaminants and invasive species. This special issue highlights the broad network of binational research and monitoring efforts by federal, state, and provincial agencies and academic partners that took place during the 2018 Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) field year for Lake Ontario. The research and monitoring by creative and collaborative teams assembled under the umbrella of CSMI 2018 includes projects that investigated a wide variety of factors impacting the lake ecosystem, ranging from physics to chemistry and biology. This issue also provides examples of data sharing/synthesis and modeling tools that promote the use of these extensive datasets to explore ecosystem management options. The research and monitoring outcomes from CSMI 2018 provide managers with current information on the Lake Ontario ecosystem to inform decision making and guide restoration and protection efforts.