Through the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (Agreement), Annex 4 (Nutrients), Canada and the United States (the Parties) have committed to coordinate binational actions to manage phosphorus loadings to the Great Lakes to combat harmful and nuisance algal blooms and hypoxia. The Parties adopted phosphorus load reduction targets in 2016 to reduce inputs to the western and central basins of Lake Erie in order to achieve related Lake Ecosystem Objectives outlined in the Agreement. The Parties use an adaptive management approach to understand how Lake Erie is responding to nutrient management actions, and to inform future efforts necessary to reduce the extent and severity of harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and nuisance algae.
The Annex 4 Subcommittee’s Lake Erie Adaptive Management Task Team developed the Binational Lake Erie Nutrient Adaptive Management Framework to outline the process by which progress towards achieving phosphorus load reduction targets and Lake Ecosystem Objectives will be tracked and evaluated. As it will take time to see measurable results in the lake, the Binational Lake Erie Nutrient Adaptive Management Framework will support continued evaluations of progress. Improving the understanding of the relationships between nutrient reduction and ecosystem response will help the Parties make informed and effective nutrient management decisions over time.
Binational Lake Erie Nutrient Adaptive Management Framework 2023 (PDF 1 MB)