Freshwater Ecosystems Revitalizing Educational Programs in Limnology (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-9
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At the same time that water resources are essential to human societies, activities of these societies can pollute and degrade water resources, limiting their beneficial uses. Since the start of the "environmental movement" in the 1960s and especially since the passage of the Clean Water Act in the United States in 1972, North Americans have realized that manufacturing, agriculture, mining, urban development, and other activities can pose risks to freshwater bodies, and they have taken steps to reduce these risks.
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Improvements in the teaching and study of limnology will benefit other, closely allied aquatic sciences as well as society as a whole-by leading to new research breakthroughs and raising the profile of both aquatic ecosystems and the sciences necessary for understanding how to protect them. CONTEMPORARY WATER MANAGEMENT: ROLE OF LIMNOLOGY The Clean Water Act and other efforts to control waste discharges to waterways have noticeably improved the condition of some water bodies (well-known examples include Lake Erie and the Potomac River)
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affects water quality. Limnologists have been involved in demonstrating how land-use changes alter the yields of chemical constituents and sediments to water bodies, and they should be instrumental in devising scientifically based watershed management plans.
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For example, the Clean Water Act focused primarily on reducing water pollution from sewage and industrial facilities and paid much less attention to the range of other human impacts on water bodies. Future water management will demand professionals who are broadly trained to view water bodies as systems that are integrated with the surrounding landscape and in which biological, physical, and chemical processes are interrelated.
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On the other hand, students specializing in the study of aquatic ecosystems in civil and environmental engineering departments may have strong training in hydrology and water chemistry but relatively little knowledge of the organisms that inhabit aquatic systems. Also, students in these and other types of programs rarely have access to courses that will train them to understand all types of aquatic ecosystems (wetlands, streams, and lakes)
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Establish regional departments of aquatic science with limnology majors. Creating strong aquatic science departments, with comprehensive limnology majors for undergraduates, in some U.S.
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programs generally are not adequate to provide limnologists with the abovedescribed skills. LINKING WATER MANAGEMENT, RESEARCH, AND EDUCATION IN LIMNOLOGY Beyond strengthening limnology in educational institutions, the Committee on Inland Aquatic Ecosystems recommends additional steps to improve the links between scientific understanding in this field, as produced and disseminated primarily by educational institutions, and the practical management of water resources, as conducted primarily by government agencies and for-profit companies: .
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Examples of possible outreach efforts include participating in elementary and secondary school education, speaking at public hearings, working with university extension services, providing advice to environmental organizations, and participating in citizen-based programs for water quality monitoring and rehabilitation. In summary, determining the most significant risks to freshwater ecosystems and deciding how to manage those risks effectively will require advances in fundamental science and in the application of this knowledge
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 to practical problems. In turn, achieving these goals will require strengthening limnology within university systems and making better connections among academic limnologists, water resource managers, and the general public.
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