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

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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.