Challenges for Limnology in the United States and Canada: An Assessment of the Discipline in the 1990’s Report of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Challenges for Limnology Committee

BULLETIN The ASLO Bulletin is published at least 3 times annually by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography to provide members with up-to-date information on Society activities and to serve as a forum for open discussion. EDITOR: C. The figure on the front cover is a depiction of the multidisciplinary nature of limnology. Preface The ASLO Board of Directors has often discussed the status or welfare of limnology in North America and the responsibility of ASLO to promote beneficial change in limnology. Although extending back many years, and probably even to the beginning of the society, these discussions became especially pointed during 1990 at a time when published commentaries on the state of limnology began to appear in the Society's journal, Limnology and Oceanography, in the ASLO Bulletin, and elsewhere. There seemed to be a general sense that limnology might be facing a decline of some sort, although individual commentators diagnosed the situation in a variety of ways. The Board, acting through the President, responded to this building concern by creating a committee, which came to be known as the Challenges for Limnology Committee, that was charged with assessing the state of limnology in the U.S. and Canada and with making recommendations that might be beneficial to the development of limnology. The Committee consisted of 9 members drawn from various branches of the society. Following a meeting at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies at Millbrook, NY, the Committee drafted a report including an analysis of current trends in limnology, or opportunities that seem to be undeveloped or underdeveloped by limnologists, and of support and strategies for research and education in limnology. The Committee also expressed its opinions on the causes of trends in limnology, and offered a set of recommendations to be considered by limnologists for the future. After the development of consensus within the Committee, which was no easy task, the report, which is presented here, was sent to reviewers and then finalized. The Committee has hoped from the beginning to stimulate debate and action among the limnologists of ASLO and limnologists generally. Summary Within the last 20 years, the United States and Canada have committed vast new resources to the protection of inland waters. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) estimates that, in the United States alone, the present annual cost of water pollution control, which is primarily for inland waters, totals approximately 50 billion dollars per …