An heuristic model of transformations of the aquatic ecosystems of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin

Seminal works of the 1960s on open systems by Arthur Koestler, Ramon Margalef and Richard Vollenweider are interrelated here, with many other works on the science of aquatic ecosystems, in a heuristic model of selected manifestations and transformations of the aquatic ecosystems of the rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes — St. Lawrence River Basin, here perceived as a single loosely-integrated ecosystem. Our empirical model is in the form of a tentative generalization of a set of features and events — large-scale with respect to time and space — in these aquatic ecosystems, with some suggestions of recent relevant theoretical concepts from post-normal studies of complex phenomena. Our work may be a step toward a more comprehensive, bioregional, heuristic model of the Basin to include the aquatic and terrestrial, as well as the natural and cultural ecosystemic features.