Lilith Kramer

Eutrophication poses a threat to lake ecosystem services provisioning worldwide. When eutrophic lakes are connected to other water systems, either through water flows, or through organismal movement and dispersal, their excess nutrients affect nearby lakes too. Understanding nutrient transport dynamics in lake meta-ecosystems is not trivial, as it encompasses the complexity of ecosystems themselves (i.e., food web dynamics, nutrient cycling) and the transport between ecosystems. Hitherto, it remains unknown how heterogeneity in lake meta-ecosystems affects their ecological resilience. We argue that scientists and water managers would benefit from the use of meta-ecosystem models while unravelling meta-ecosystem complexity. To this end, we converted lake ecosystem model PCLake+ into lake meta-ecosystem model PCLakeS+. We showed that the spatial configuration of a lake meta-ecosystem influences its ecological dynamics, and that nutrient transport depends heavily on food web processes. We conclude that PCLakeS+ is suitable for exploring meta-ecosystem concepts for science and water management.

Freshwater ecosystems are exceptionally rich in biodiversity and provide essential benefits to people. Yet they are disproportionately threatened compared to terrestrial and marine systems and remain underrepresented in the scenarios and models used for global environmental assessments. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) has recently been proposed to advance the contribution of scenarios and models for environmental assessments. This framework places the diverse relationships between people and nature at its core, identifying three value perspectives as points of departure: Nature for Nature, Nature for Society, and Nature as Culture. We explore how the NFF may be implemented for improved assessment of freshwater ecosystems. First, we outline how the NFF and its main value perspectives can be translated to freshwater systems and explore what desirable freshwater futures would look like from each of the above perspectives. Second, we review scenario strategies and current models to examine how freshwater modelling can be linked to the NFF in terms of its aims and outcomes. In doing so, we also identify which aspects of the NFF framework are not yet captured in current freshwater models and suggest possible ways to bridge them. Our analysis provides future directions for a more holistic freshwater model and scenario development and demonstrates how society can benefit from freshwater modelling efforts that are integrated with the value-perspectives of the NFF.

Ongoing anthropogenic and climatic pressures on inland waters have made water quality management a challenge of the 21st century. A holistic catchment-scale approach to water management which includes stakeholder participation will be a key in maintaining lake health. A first step toward community engagement is to bolster environmental literacy on lake management, ecology, and eutrophication concepts of stakeholders now and in future generations. However, communicating with nonwater professionals about effects of pollution on water quality and catchment-scale interactions across space and time can be difficult. Here, we present “Flipping Lakes,” a games-based method for lake professionals to communicate and educate about catchment-level water quality management to diverse audiences. In Flipping Lakes, the players take on the role of water managers in a catchment and are tasked to prevent a lake from “flipping” from a clear to a turbid state. During the game, the catchment slowly becomes polluted by a range of sources of which the effects are exacerbated by societal or climatic scenarios. Players need to implement measures while taking into consideration the intrinsic properties of the catchment in order to keep lakes clean. The game was tested with a diverse range of user groups and was well-received. With its entertaining and accessible content, Flipping Lakes can lower communication barriers and increase understanding of difficult water quality concepts. The game is highly customizable, making it applicable to a variety of settings to support education and engagement of stakeholders and the broader community in order to address local water challenges around the globe.