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General Objectives in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement refer to the Waters of the Great Lakes being free from nutrients that directly or indirectly enter the water as a result of human activity, in amounts that promote the growth of algae and cyanobacteria that interfere with aquatic ecosystem health, or human use of the ecosystem. Although algae occurs naturally and is part of a healthy freshwater ecosystem, the Great Lakes have seen an increase in the occurrence of algal blooms. Algal blooms occur when there is excessive phytoplankton growth because of changes to water conditions – the most common of which is increases in nutrients (e.g. Phosphorus and Nitrogen). This category consists of two measures: Cyanobacteria and Cladophora (and Dissolved Oxygen in Lake Erie). |