Landscape Ecology, Coastal Processes, and the Blue Economy in the Laurentian Great Lakes

The Great Lakes Coast matches the length of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts combined, and supports large cities that exemplified our Nation’s Industrial heartland. Loss of manufacturing has threatened the U.S. portion of a coastal economy that supports 30 million people. Coastal communities now seek economic revitalization via development of a blue economy, but are confronted with a legacy of impacts that resulted in loss of ecosystem services. Restoring these services is the foundation for a blue economy, but resource managers are confounded by lack of information, lack of predictable restoration outcomes, and need for information at multiple scales. This is exacerbated by failure to pursue goals concurrently: Local governments focus on job growth and infrastructure, while biologists focus on site-specific restorations. We are using a landscape approach that integrates ecological processes and restoration with urban coastal planning such that cities can achieve revitalized urban waterfronts that also support restored ecosystem services. Our initial focus has been on the 2200 Great Lakes rivermouths because these are sites where humans interact most strongly with the Great Lakes. Our results suggest that these systems function much like marine estuaries, and complex mixing processes likely supported historical coastal fisheries and wildlife production. Rivermouth classification identified key systems for restoration of anadromous fish populations, and a concurrent survey of resource managers will allow us to develop an ecosystem services model that will provide a common currency for discussions that can integrate ecological restoration and urban planning so that coastal communities can achieve economic revitalization.