Landscape liminology to assess environment flow

Scientists from Michigan State University have developed what they describe as a pioneering, comprehensive approach that makes conserving and managing freshwater lakes, streams and wetlands more integrated and effective. Known as "landscape limnology", the approach offers an alternative way to assess environmental water requirements based on the interaction of surface water with the terrestrial and human landscapes.

According to Patricia Soranno, Michigan State University professor of fisheries and wildlife and lead author of the report published in the June 1 issue of the journal BioScience:

It's a new way to study freshwater that considers all freshwaters together – lakes, rivers and wetlands – as they interact with one another and with natural and human landscapes. Our goal is to improve our broad understanding of the diversity of freshwater resources and to give freshwater managers science-based tools to manage and protect these bodies of water.

Landscape limnology uses GIS, data from satellites and aerial photos, including information on land use, soils and geology around the freshwater resources. This information is combined with data collected in the field, such as fish population numbers or nutrient levels in the water to create models that decision-makers can use to decide on the best management and conservation strategies to meet their goals.

Landscape limnology differs from traditional limnology by looking at freshwater resources as an integrated part of a complex landscape of terrestrial and aquatic elements rather than considering each lake or wetland as an isolated, single entity. Soranno and co-authors Mary Bremigan and Kendra Spence Cheruvelil said many current and emerging environmental issues have causes that range in scale from local to global.

Land-use change, exotic species invasions and climate change are all complex issues linked in ways that only can be understood by taking an approach that includes all these scales as well as freshwater, terrestrial and human landscape information.

Article Abstract

Governmental entities are responsible for managing and conserving large numbers of lake, river, and wetland ecosystems that can be addressed only rarely on a case-by-case basis. We present a system for predictive classification modeling, grounded in the theoretical foundation of landscape limnology, that creates a tractable number of ecosystem classes to which management actions may be tailored.

We demonstrate our system by applying two types of predictive classification modeling approaches to develop nutrient criteria for eutrophication management in 1998 north temperate lakes. Our predictive classification system promotes the effective management of multiple ecosystems across broad geographic scales by explicitly connecting management and conservation goals to the classification modeling approach, considering multiple spatial scales as drivers of ecosystem dynamics, and acknowledging the hierarchical structure of freshwater ecosystems.

Such a system is critical for adaptive management of complex mosaics of freshwater ecosystems and for balancing competing needs for ecosystem services in a changing world.

Reference: Patricia A. Soranno, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, Katherine E. Webster, Mary T. Bremigan, Tyler Wagner, Craig A. Stow. "Using Landscape Limnology to Classify Freshwater Ecosystems for Multi-ecosystem Management and Conservation". Bioscience, June 2010, Vol. 60, No. 6, Pages 440–454