I had the pleasure of attending the European Large Lakes Symposium (ELLS) – International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) 2018 international conference entitled “Big Lakes, Small World” during the week of September 23-28, 2018 in Evian, France on the shores of Lake Geneva.
The ELLS-IAGLR symposium drew scientists studying large lakes systems from around the world to the shores of Lake Geneva in Evian, France.
This symposium was notable for many reasons, including being the first IAGLR meeting held outside of North America, in conjunction with the 5th European Large Lakes Symposium. I was impressed with the strong Great Lakes presence at ELLS. In addition to myself and Philip Chu representing the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), colleagues from the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR)—Tom Johengen, Dmitry and Raisa Beletsky—also attended. There were also a number of our Laurentian Great Lakes partners from around the basin participating in the symposium.
Like French cuisine, the conference “menu” was jam-packed with scientific gourmet entrees, which we gorged on each day from 8:45 in the morning until after the poster session concluding at 7:00 each evening. The conference was held in the historic Palais Lumiere (below), formerly a bathhouse, circa 1902, converted into a convention and cultural center in 2006—where better to hold a conference focused on water?
The symposium was held at the historic Palais Lumiere formerly a bathhouse, circa 1902, converted into a convention and cultural center in 2006.
Presentations featured an array of topics, including the chemical, physical, and biological aspects of lakes exotic as the Amazonian floodplain lakes and Russia’s Lake Peipsi, as well as those large lakes familiar to us, such as the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, and Lake Tahoe. Common issues of concern raised during the symposium involved the dynamic changes caused by multiple stressors, namely, increasing temperature, human populations, invasive species, and harmful algal blooms. One observation that I’m excited to report is the number of times NOAA data, products, and services were referenced in talks—a telltale sign that scientists worldwide are relying on NOAA expertise. Items ranged from a Great Lakes sticker on monitoring equipment to the use of graphics like NOAA global surface temperature maps and GLERL food web charts (twice!). I also spotted a quote pulled from our 5-year science review and even one from our venerable Craig Stow (see image below). I counted at least 18 presentations that cited a connection to NOAA.
As a Great Lakes stakeholder attending this international symposium, I would like to convey to our Great Lakes partners from around the region that we, as a community, can take pride and satisfaction that our daily work results in global impact on large lakes—small world!
Michelle Selzer, Lake Coordinator with the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes, quotes GLERL’s Craig Stow on the topic of establishing phosphorus load targets in Lake Erie: “Going forward, our willingness and ability to monitor, evaluate, and update the targets will be more important than the original targets.”
Philip Chu with Ph.D candidate Theo Baracchini and Dr. Shubham Krishna of Physics and Aquatic Systems Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
CIGLR scientist, Dmitry Beletsky, presents at ELLS on a CIGLR/GLERL research project to advance hypoxia forecasting.
NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory 