Research: perspectives

Abstract

The research effort on Lake McIlwaine has in the past been motivated by two key questions. The first of these, which dominated what may be called the first phase of the research programme on Lake McIlwaine, was what is the cause of the eutrophication of the lake? The effects of the eutrophication process were to some extent obvious and have been outlined in several of the preceeding papers. The second phase of the Lake McIlwaine research programme was aimed at answering the question what can be done to retard or reverse the eutrophication process? Implicit in this question was the query what effect will eutrophication control measures have on the lake? These questions too have been answered in the preceeding papers. Thus, the research effort on Lake McIlwaine stands at a cross-roads, and it remains for this section to assess the foregoing reviews and to examine the research needs of the future. And indeed it was this need for an assessment of the research programme on Lake McIlwaine that provided the impetus for this volume.