North Temperate Lakes

The cycling of water between the atmosphere, ecosystems, and humans is a growing concern in urbanizing agricultural watersheds where changing climate, human demands, agricultural practices, land use and other policies interact. How will the benefits we receive from our diverse landscapes be sustained as climate, land use, cities, and human demands change? We will address this question using integrated scenarios, model experiments to assess effects of changing drivers on human benefits derived from ecosystems, evaluations of governance, public engagement, and information management. Our focus is the Yahara Watershed of Wisconsin, which is an exemplar of water-related issues in the Upper Midwest. We will address three specific questions.