Human-driven nutrient inputs into aquatic ecosystems must be managed to preserve biodiversity and to ensure that valued fishery and water quality services are not compromised by hypoxia and harmful algal blooms. Aiming for nutrient inputs that achieve an intermediate level of ecosystem productivity is expected to provide both high fish yield and good water quality. However, we argue that such an intermediate “optimum” may not exist for many aquatic ecosystems that support multiple fisheries with differing tolerances to eutrophication and that must provide multiple water quality services. We further support this argument with an empirical case study of nearly a century (1915–2011) of change in the productivity of Lake Erie and its lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), walleye (Sander vitreus), and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) fisheries. We discuss and show how the harvest of each fishery has been historically maximized at different levels of ecosystem productivity. Additionally, we examine how anticipated management efforts to improve water quality by reducing nutrient inputs (i.e., oligotrophication) may favor certain fisheries over others, resulting in no single optimal range of nutrient inputs that achieves all valued fishery and water quality objectives. Our synthesis and case study illustrate how the need to balance multiple services in aquatic ecosystems can create a wicked management problem with inevitable trade-offs. To navigate these trade-offs, we recommend the use of ecosystem-based management approaches, which can help decision makers identify and resolve complex trade-offs by facilitating cooperative research and communication among water quality regulators, fisheries managers, and end users.

The post Eutrophication, water quality, and fisheries: a wicked management problem with insights from a century of change in Lake Erie first appeared on Ecology & Society.

必须对人类驱动的水生生态系统营养输入进行管理，以保护生物多样性，并确保有价值的渔业和水质服务不会因缺氧和有害藻华而受到损害。以实现生态系统生产力中等水平的养分投入为目标，预计将提供高鱼产量和良好的水质。然而，我们认为，对于许多水生生态系统来说，这种中间的“最佳”可能不存在，这些生态系统支持对富营养化具有不同耐受性的多种渔业，并且必须提供多种水质服务。我们通过近一个世纪（1915-2011）伊利湖及其湖白鲑（ Coregonus clupeaformis）、白眼鱼（Sander vitreus）生产力变化的实证案例研究进一步支持了这一论点。）和黄鲈（Perca flavescens）渔业。我们讨论并展示历史上每种渔业的产量如何在不同的生态系统生产力水平上最大化。此外，我们还研究了通过减少养分投入（即寡营养化）来改善水质的预期管理努力可能如何有利于某些渔业而不是其他渔业，从而导致没有单一的最佳养分投入范围可以实现所有有价值的渔业和水质目标。我们的综合和案例研究说明了平衡水生生态系统中多种服务的需要如何产生不可避免的权衡的棘手管理问题。为了应对这些权衡，我们建议使用基于生态系统的管理方法，

后富营养化、水质和渔业：一个邪恶的管理问题以及伊利湖一个世纪的变化的见解首次出现在《生态与社会》杂志上。