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...
As in various freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems worldwide, seasonal bottom water hypoxia is a recurring phenomenon in Lake Erie's central basin. While bottom hypoxia can strongly affect sessile benthic animals, its effects on mobile organisms such as fish are less understood. We evaluated the potential for bottom hypoxia to...