Importance of long-term intensive monitoring programs for understanding multiple drivers influencing Lake Ontario zooplankton communities

Drivers of lower food web composition and productivity in Lake Ontario have undergone extensive changes in the last 40 years, including nutrient abatement, fluctuations in planktivores (Alewife), and invasion by dreissenid mussels and predatory cladocerans. Temporally intensive long-term index stations are critical for understanding these drivers and interpreting the results of periodic lake-wide spatially intensive surveys such as Cooperative …