Assessing and addressing the re-eutrophication of Lake Erie: Central basin hypoxia

Relieving phosphorus loading is a key management tool for controlling Lake Erie eutrophication. During the 1960s and 1970s, increased phosphorus inputs degraded water quality and reduced central basin hypolimnetic oxygen levels which, in turn, eliminated thermal habitat vital to cold-water organisms and contributed to the extirpation of important benthic macroinvertebrate prey species for fishes. In response to load reductions initiated in 1972, Lake Erie responded quickly with reduced water-column phosphorus concentrations, phytoplankton biomass, and bottom-water hypoxia (dissolved oxygen

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 0644648, 0927643, 1313897
• UE
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• JF
  Joyce Foundation
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  Awards: NA07OAR4320006, NA09NOS4780234, NA10NOS4780218, NA07OAR432000
• UF
  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

  Award: F-69-P
• UG
  U.S. Geological Survey
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture

  Award: USDA-NIFA
• UA
  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• CF
  Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research

  Awards: NA07OAR432000, NA10NOS4780218