Lake Erie’s seasonal dissolved oxygen problem: State of the science and approaches to best inform future understanding

Abstract

In October 2021 the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) convened a virtual summit to address hypoxia in the central basin of Lake Erie. Forty-one attendees (Appendix I) representing US and Canadian federal, state and provincial agencies, academic partners, and other stakeholder groups reviewed the state of the science and assessed approaches for tracking the future progress of hypoxia extent. This summit was preceded by three webinars focused on: the GLWQA Nutrients Annex subcommittee history and process, current and past monitoring efforts aimed at hypoxia in the lake, and modeling products related to hypoxia. Participants in the summit split into four breakout rooms and discussed questions pertaining to hypoxia in Lake Erie. This report includes a summary of the general themes discussed in the workshops and the resulting set of recommendations.