Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER), University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

*Corresponding author: dporta@uwindsor.ca

Summary

   Lake Erie is the smallest of the Laurentian Great Lakes and the most heavily affected by anthropogenic activity supporting a population base of over 11 million people. An integrated overview of the chemical contaminants lake wide was implemented to assess the current status of the lake and outline future monitoring and research needs required to address environmental effects of chemical pollutants. A comprehensive database of contaminant concentrations in water, sediment, and biota has been developed for over three decades, but the comparison and integration of available data are difficult to achieve due to the diverse methodologies and different time/spatial scales of the studies. Overall, lake wide declines of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury are documented while other chemicals such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) continue to exhibit increasing trends. Only a few metal studies have been based on trace metal clean dependable techniques, and this results in most of the available data on toxic metals up to the mid 1990s to be of limited value. The lack of integrated monitoring and research programs combined with quality assurance issues stresses the need for the general adaptation of a new approach if ecosystem management is to be achieved. Furthermore appropriate monitoring, research, and remediation programs must consider chemical pollutants in combination with other lake stressors such as species invasions and climate change in order to predict future trends and effects.