ABI Development: Building advanced numerical simulation technology for the lake ecology community

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

There are millions of lakes on Earth, many of which are used for recreation, fisheries, and tourism. To effectively manage these lakes, resource managers and scientists must be able to recreate and predict complex physical, chemical, and biological interactions. Computer models are a means of transforming observational data into useable output that recreates historical changes and informs lake and reservoir management. Future scenarios of landscape and atmospheric changes can also be tested to provide forecasting of water quality. Using an open-source computer model, scientists and managers from around the world, students in the classroom, and lake-associations can visualize complex physical and biological data and communicate the relevance of environmental change. This project will develop the General Lake Model-Aquatic EcoDynamics (GLM-AED) model, which has been used by specialists in science and management applications, into robust, easy to use software that meets the demands of the broader ecological community for research, education, and outreach. Currently there is a gap between training and adoption, due to the excessive time investment needed to setup and run a GLM-AED simulation. This project will overcome these obstacles by developing new documentation and datasets, tutorials, and user tools, as well as module development and a multi-platform test harness. GLM-AED development will be linked to two research initiatives that showcase how GLM-AED can advance our biological understanding of lakes and reservoirs. These are the modeling of lake ice duration across the continent of North America, and modeling of phosphorus retention across a series of lakes in the Midwest and Northeast of the United States. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.