FEATURE
Freshwater Science:
A DISCIPLINE
DIVIDED JACQUELINE
Without a central academic home or funding source, limnology is a fragmented and struggling field.
MACDONALD
T
he National Research Council (NRC) released a report Oct. 1 calling for a major reorganization of aquatic science programs within U.S. universities and funding institutions to reinvigorate the science of limnology (i). The report, Freshwater Ecosystems: Revitalizing Educational Programs in Limnology, calls for the formation oo fepartments of aquatic science, with majors in limnology, on a regional basis. It also calls for the establishment of a permanent funding program within the National Science Foundation (NSF) focused on "basic and problem-solving interdisciplinary research on inland aquatic ecosystems." During a time when universities and the federal government are evaluating ways to cut their budgets, recommendations to establish new science programs are controversial. Jared Cohon, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, commented, "Forming departments of aquatic science would be valuable. But there are barriers to creating new departments, especially in mis time of contraction and consolidation in universities." Creating new departments or programs is most difficult for interdisciplinary sciences such as limnology, said Cohon, primarily because existing departments, faced with cuts, will not be receptive to new programs that they may perceive as siphoning off their resources. Nevertheless, the report's authors believe that creating aquatic science departments not only is possible, but might save money. "This is a time of change in academia," said the University of Minnesota's Patrick Brezonik, an aquatic chemist and chair of the NRC committee that wrote the report. "Major structural changes are occurring, in part because of limited resources and in part because of changes in the traditional academic disciplines. Streamlining the teaching of aquatic science by including it in a single department or interdepartmental program could save resources by eliminating duplication across departments." According to the report, the study and teaching of limnology are currently scattered across a range of departments, including civil engineering, fisheries and wildlife, botany, zoology, ecology, environmental science, forestry, geology, and geography. The NRC surveyed universities across the country and identified 23 types of departments in which limnology is taught. "The net result is increasing fragmentation of the discipline: Limnology is an interest within many fields, but it is not the primary focus of any of the traditional departments," says the report.
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0013-936X/96/0930-444A$12.00/0 © 1996 American Chemical Society
Inadequate training of scientists Brezonik said that this fragmentation has led to "inadequate training of limnologists as interdisciplinary aquatic scientists, which is ironic given that the field is inherently interdisciplinary." Those who learn about limnology in biology departments may lack sufficient training in the physical and chemical principles of aquatic ecosystems, whereas those who learn limnology in civil engineering departments may lack adequate knowledge of biology. The report defines limnology broadly to include study of the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and wetlands. This is a departure from how many outside the field perceive limnology—as a science that focuses on the biology of lakes. For example, Cohon said that until he read the NRC report, he viewed limnology as "rooted in aquatic biology." Robert Wetzel, a University of Alabama limnologist who served on the committee, said the broad definition of limnolrecognizes that in studying lakes, one "must incorporate the elements of the entire drainage basin." The report credits limnologists with critical scientific advances in the management of aquatic ecosystems. Chief among these are discovery of the mechanisms leading to the eutrophication of lakes, prediction of how global warming will affect aquatic ecosystems, and enumeration of the effects of acid rain on aquatic systems. For example, by experimenting on whole lakes in a remote area of Canada, limnologists demonstrated that, by controlling phosphorus input to a lake, it is possible to reverse damage caused by eutrophication. Eutrophication was a key cause of the decline of commercial fishing in Lake Erie and other major water bodies earlier in this century As a result of phosphorus controls implemented in response to the discoveries of limnologists, eutrophication damage to many water bodies has been reversed. Limnology in decline NRC began the freshwater ecosystems study in response to concerns voiced by limnologists over the past decade that the field was in decline. A series of exchanges in Limnology and Oceanography, ,he primary academic journal for lake limnologists, about the status of the science expressed some of these concerns.
Scientific advances in limnology have been critical in the management of aquatic ecosystems, according to the NRC report. An experiment at Little Rock Lake in Wisconsin probed the effects of acidification by dividing the lake and treating the upper portion to lower the pH. The increased transparency that resulted led to a wide range of negative effects on the lake's ecosystem. (Photo courtesy Carl Watras, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.)
The University of Washington's Peter A. Jumars compared the low level of research support for limnology with the high level of support given to oceanography through the Office of Naval Research and NSF (2). In an article titled "W(h)ither limnology?" he pointed out, "[T]here is no separate budget at any agency for basic research funding in limnology." As a result, "[l]arge, interdisciplinary programs are rare and are fought actively by many limnologists as competitors for a very small and ill-defined pool of research dollars." Wetzel emphasized the lack of comprehensive educational programs in limnology (3). "Faculty in needed component subdisciplines [of limnology]].. may exist on campus, but the specialty courses are disparate and nearly always optional. Couplings and integrations among faculty of different departments or colleges within the universities rarely exist in reality," he wrote. McGill University's Jacob Kalff wrote that limnologists need to focus more on solving environmental problems of greatest concern to society to reinvigorate the science (4). "Contemporary limnology in academia has largely turned its back on the resource problems of the day and is, therefore, increasVOL. 30, NO. 10, 1996/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 4 4 5 A
The training of limnologists and future aquatic resource managers at U.S. universities is inadequate, charges a newly released NRC report, because courses are scattered across different departments. A University of Wisconsin class takes a limnology field trip to Little Rock Lake. (Photo courtesy Thomas M. Frost, University of Wisconsin, Trout Lake Station.)
ingly irrelevant in helping to solve the major environmental problems and naturally unable to prepare students to capably contribute to resource management," stated Kalff. NRC's primary recommendation for strengthening the science of limnology is to create departments of aquatic science with majors in limnology at one or more universities in each region of the country. In universities that do not create such departments, the report recommends forming "strong interdepartmental programs in aquatic science, with an option to specialize in limnology." Reorganizing how limnology is taught will improve the training of students who ultimately will take jobs as managers of aquatic resources, according to Brezonik. "Most of the recommendations are aimed at doing a better job training B.S. and M.S. students who will become managers of aquatic ecosystems," Brezonik said, rather than producing doctorallevel scientists who will work in universities and research organizations.
Central funding program needed Also critical in revitalizing limnology, the report says, is the creation of a permanent funding program for freshwater research at NSF. The report notes that most support for limnological research comes from NSF's Division of Environmental Biology; consequently, biological limnology is emphasized over study of the chemical and physical characteristics of aquatic
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ecosystems. According to the report, 90% of NSF's grants on subjects related to limnology in 1991 included work with a biological component, whereas only 25% included work in chemical limnology and only 2% supported work in physical limnology. The report credits a new NSF program, the "Water and Watersheds" initiative, which provides $10 million per year for interdisciplinary research on aquatic ecosystems, as a start at reversing this situation. However, the program is relatively small: Only about 30 of 650 proposals submitted for review in 1995 received funding. Furthermore, the program is only temporary. It was created as a threeyear "special c o m p e t i t i o n " in December 1994 by a memorand u m of understanding between EPA and NSF. It is unclear whether the program will continue next year because both agencies are experiencing budget cutbacks "NSF has learned a lot about running interdisciplinary programs from the 'Water and Watersheds' initiative," said Penny Firth, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology. Although the program officers at NSF and EPA who worked on the initiative are very enthusiastic about its success and would like to see it run for several more years, Firth said that making it a permanent program is unlikely because of the current fiscal climate. "Establishing a permanent program for freshwater ecosystem research would likely mean displacing an existing program within NSF," she said. Nevertheless according to Firth, past special competitions similar to the "Water and Watersheds" initiative have sometimes resulted in the formation of permanent NSF programs The authors of the NRC report believe that, whether or not "Water and Watersheds" continues, some mechanism is needed to focus the funding of freshwater science into a more unified program. "Funding for limnology is hit or miss," Brezonik lamented.
References (1) National Research Council. Freshwater Ecosystems: Revitalizing Educational Programs in Limnology; National Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1996. (2) Jumars, P. Limnol. Oceanogr. 1990, 35(5), 1216-18. (3) Wetzel, R. Limnol. Oceanogr. 1991, 36(1)) 213-15. (4) Kalff, J. Limnol. Oceanogr. 1991, 36(7), 1499-1501.
Jacqueline MacDonald is a senior staff officer at the National Research Council. She has previously written for ES&T, Garbage: The Practical Journal for the Environment, Water Environment and Technology, and Industrial Wastewater.
