Multiple Stressors and Cumulative Effects in the Great Lakes: An NSERC CREATE program to Develop Innovative Solutions through International Training Partnerships

五大湖--圣彼得堡。劳伦斯河流域居住着超过3300万人，约占北美人口的10%。它是一个重要的工业和制造业中心，其周围的流域包含一些北美产量最高的农业用地。如此强烈的人类存在带来了沉重的人类足迹，五大湖生态系统长期存在相互作用的人为压力机制(例如，营养物质污染、化学污染、入侵物种、沿海开发、栖息地破坏等)。从历史上看，来自不同学科的研究人员从单个压力源的角度来研究这些问题，但越来越清楚的是，对于五大湖经历的许多环境问题，有效和创新的政策解决方案必须建立在对压力源如何相互作用及其累积影响的全面理解的基础上。在五大湖地区独特的国际环境中，我们认为，最好的办法是利用跨境、多学科的方法培训一批专业人员，这种方法融合了科学、社会和经济层面，促进了研究人员、政策制定者和公共部门之间的直接互动。NSERC CREATE项目采用基础教学和实践教学相结合的教学方法和“边做边学”的理念，旨在培养下一代科学家和政策制定者理解并有能力解决多重压力源和累积效应的复杂问题；培养学生“为市场做好准备”并因此能够在政府、工业和学术界担任领导职位；以及培养能够为五大湖生态系统未来的可持续发展提供最佳建议并制定战略监管政策和管理框架的核心专业人员。

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin is home to over 33 million people, approximately 10% of the population of North America. It is a key industrial and manufacturing center and its surrounding watersheds contain some of the most productive agricultural land in North America. With such an intense human presence comes a heavy human footprint, and the Great Lakes ecosystems have a long legacy of interacting anthropogenic stress regimes (e.g., nutrient pollution, chemical contamination, invasive species, coastal development, habitat destruction, among many others). Historically, researchers from different disciplines have examined these problems from the perspective of individual stressors but it is becoming increasingly clear that effective and innovative policy solutions to many of environmental problems experienced by the Great Lakes must be founded on a comprehensive understanding of how stressors interact and their cumulative effects. In the unique international environment of the Great Lakes, we believe that this is best achieved by training a core of professionals using a trans-boundary, multidisciplinary approach that integrates scientific, social, and economic dimensions which promotes direct interaction between researchers, policy-makers, and the public sector. Using a comprehensive combination of fundamental and practical teaching approaches, a "learn while doing" philosophy, this NSERC CREATE program on multiple stressors and cumulative effects is designed to train the next generation of scientists and policy-makers to understand and be capable of addressing the complex issue of multiple stressors and cumulative effects; students who are "market-ready" and therefore able to assume leadership positions in government, industry, and academia; and a core of professionals who will be in the best position to advise on and develop strategic regulatory policy and management frameworks for the future sustainability of the Great Lakes ecosystems.