Great Lakes Research Research Articles

Environmental history of the St. Marys River

This paper provides a brief history of the navigational and industrial activities that led to the St. Marys River being declared a Great Lakes Area of Concern in 1985 and serves to give context to the special issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research devoted to the St. Marys River. Although much of the river contains important fish and wildlife habitat including mostly intact coastal wetlands, the urban areas of the upper St. Marys River have been impacted over the past 100+ years by industrial and navigational development. One of the more severe impacts was the near-total destruction of the once-prolific St. Marys Rapids. Large volumes of pollution were discharged into the river including up to 10,000 kg/day of oil and grease. The invasion of sea lamprey severely reduced lake trout and other fisheries. Water quality monitoring and other studies from the 1970s to 1980s documented these problems. Enforcement of environmental regulations enacted in Canada and the United States, investments in pollution control technology by industry and the municipalities, and improved fisheries management for invasive species have resulted in improved environmental conditions, however legacy impacts remain. The on-going Remedial Action Plan (RAP) process provides a framework for continued environmental improvements.

Defining environmental risk assessment criteria for genetically modified fishes to be placed on the EU market

Defining environmental risk assessment criteria for genetically modified fishes to be placed on the EU market

Awards presented at May 17-21, 2010 53rd Conference on Great Lakes Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Awards presented at May 17-21, 2010 53rd Conference on Great Lakes Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Changing Interests of the Membership: An Update: International Association of Great Lakes Research

Changing Interests of the Membership: An Update: International Association of Great Lakes Research

Editorial

The AEHMS, via its journal (Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management) and the Ecovision World Monograph Series, has been actively engaged in promoting great/large lakes research. Consequently, it established a working group “The Great Lakes of the World-GLOW” for bringing together large lakes researchers to exchange ideas and technology. GLOW embarked on organizing special symposia which resulted in several peer-reviewed publications and special issues. In a short period of about 15 years, the AEHMS has published 11 peer-reviewed books under the banner of Ecovision World Monograph Series (Table 1).Over the past nine years 12 special issues of Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management have been published dealing with great/large lakes (Table 2).Most of the manuscripts included in this special issue originated from the two sessions organized at the following international conferences: “Managing the large lakes of the world: Health, Integrity and risks”Limnological Congress (SIL), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2007“Great Lakes tomorrow: Research tools, toys and techniques”International Great Lakes Research Conference (IAGLR),Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 2007The papers have been categorized on a continental basis: North American, European and African, and reflect a great variety of topics across these continents. For North America, the themes comprised characteristics of poorly known Canadian lakes, geological history, remote sensing, and aquatic protected areas of the Great Lakes. The European contributions dealt with climate, water quality, phytoplankton, zooplankton, optical counters and remote sensing, the African papers focused mainly on fisheries of Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, Kivu and Naivasha. One contribution, from Dr. Ken Minns, on Canadian lakes was an invited article.We hope that this issue provides a valuable exposé and comparison of the status and health of large ecosystems distributed across the three continents. Such comparisons are essential in providing insights into common themes (biodiversity, food web interactions, fish habitat, and fisheries), and threats (eutrophication, toxic chemicals, invasive species and climate change). They should also aid in the development of models and in application of emerging technology to improve our understanding, monitoring and management of these precious aquatic resources which face multiple stressors (Munawar, 1987; 2000; 2009).M. MunawarFisheries and Oceans CanadaChief Editor, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management

Renovation and Innovation: It’s Time for the Great Lakes Regime to Respond

This commentary reports on a project to explore and evaluate options for Great Lakes governance renewal in anticipation of the 2006–2007 review of the Canada–US Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). The research included expert interviews and scholarly analysis of governance regimes in 2006, leading to a Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Governance Expert Workshop held in June 2007 (Krantzberg et al. 2007). The two authors have been participants and at times leaders in the institutions this commentary addresses, Krantzberg with the International Joint Commission and Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Manno with the New York Great Lakes Research Consortium and Great Lakes United. Our familiarity with the topic and many of the people involved was helpful in gaining participation and is in itself a rich source of knowledge and experience. In discussing a topic of contemporary controversy, it also understandably can make readers question the objectivity of our assessment. We are also trained in social science scholarship and have taken precautions against biasing the outcomes. This is not intended to be merely a presentation of data. We believe our experience is a net asset in addressing these questions but we leave it to the interested reader to review the reports referenced herein and judge for themselves whether our findings are fairly presented.

Preface

The Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society (AEHMS) has been organizing a series of “State of the Lake” conferences around the world, including Lakes Baikal, Erie, Michigan, Winnipeg, Superior, Victoria and Tanganyika. The AEHMS has always followed up conferences with peer – reviewed publications which include integration and synthesis of state of the art information about these lakes. The papers resulting from these conferences have been published either as a peer-reviewed book, or as a special issue of AEHM (see www.aehms.org). This issue, titled Checking the Pulse of Lake Ontario (POLO), is part of this series.The Lake Ontario ecosystem is experiencing significant ecological change. Phosphorus abatement implemented in the 1970s under the auspices of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) has resulted in low spring total phosphorus levels in offshore waters, while nutrients like silicon and nitrate have increased over this period. Consistent with declines in phosphorus have been significant reductions in phytoplankton and zooplankton, compositional changes, dominance of smaller sized organisms in primary productivity and the important role of the microbial food web. Quagga mussels now dominate waters < 90 m and few zebra mussels remain. The native amphipod, Diporeia, is nearly extinct at depths > 90 m and its future as a stakeholder in the historic food web is bleak. Invasive Cercopagis and Bythotrephes are now significant players in the lower foodweb while Mysis populations remain stable. Recently Hemimysis has been discovered in the near shore regions of the lake. Alewife populations continue to decline in response to predation by top piscivores.Historically, most of the work on Lake Ontario, as well as other Great Lakes, has been conducted in the offshore waters (> 20 m) with the exception of some harbours and embayments (Toronto Harbour, Hamilton Harbour, Bay of Quinte, Oswego) as part of the Areas of Concern program under the GLWQA. Very little is known about the dynamics and linkages between the shoreline, nearshore and offshore zones. In particular, the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors on the structure and function of the food web in the shoreline area have been ignored and the threats and challenges are largely unknown. Consequently, the Checking the Pulse of Lake Ontario symposium was a timely event and was organized as a special session of the 49th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) held at the University of Windsor, May 22-26, 2006. The response to the session was overwhelming with a record 29 papers. The papers covered a broad range of topics including: Physical and chemical regimeFood Webs: lower and higher trophic levels (bacteria to fish), including benthos and water birdsStatus of nearshore zones and embaymentsImpacts of invasive species and species at riskEmerging technologiesDue to the differing stages of submission of various manuscripts, including peer-review and processing for publication, it has been decided to publish the papers in two parts in order to expedite their release to the scientific community. The current issue includes 7 manuscripts from the POLO symposium focusing on lower trophic levels, fish communities and invasive species.Currently the Lake Ontario food web is facing serious impairments and more threats to its integrity are emerging including: climate changediscovery of new chemicals with human health effects (carcinogenic, endochrine disrupters, behaviour modifiers)new invaderstoxic algal bloomsdisease pathogens-Botulism, VHSThe pulse of Lake Ontario must be maintained in order to respond to crises and ecological surprises as well as to understand and manage the health of the ecosystem. Application of new ecological technologies, bi-national coordination, stakeholder involvement, integrated, multi trophic and frequent assessments are critical ingredients to maintaining a healthy pulse for Lake Ontario now and in the future.We would like to thank the AEHMS and IAGLR for sponsoring the POLO symposium at the Windsor conference. Thanks are due to I. F. Munawar, J. Lorimer, Ahmad Munawar, S. Blunt, M. Fitzpatrick and H. Niblock for assistance in the organization of the symposium, as well as processing and technical editing of the manuscripts. We also sincerely thank all contributors for their hard work in the preparation of the manuscripts.

Impact of a Generalizable Reminder System on Colorectal Cancer Screening in Diverse Primary Care Practices

Computerized reminder systems (CRS) show promise for increasing preventive services such as colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. However, prior research has not evaluated a generalizable CRS across diverse, community primary care practices. We evaluated whether a generalizable CRS, ClinfoTracker, could improve screening rates for CRC in diverse primary care practices. The study was a prospective trial to evaluate ClinfoTracker using historical control data in 12 Great Lakes Research In Practice Network community-based, primary care practices distributed from Southeast to Upper Peninsula Michigan. Our outcome measures were pre- and post-study practice-level CRC screening rates among patients seen during the 9-month study period. Ability to maintain the CRS was measured by days of reminder printing. Field notes were used to examine each practice's cohesion and technology capabilities. All but one practice increased their CRC screening rates, ranging from 3.3% to 16.8% improvement. t tests adjusted for within practice correlation showed improvement in screening rates across all 12 practices, from 41.7% to 50.9%, P = 0.002. Technology capabilities impacted printing days (74% for high technology vs. 45% for low technology practices, P = 0.01), and cohesion demonstrated an impact trend for screening (15.3% rate change for high cohesion vs. 7.9% for low cohesion practices). Implementing a generalizable CRS in diverse primary care practices yielded significant improvements in CRC screening rates. Technology capabilities are important in maintaining the system, but practice cohesion may have a greater influence on screening rates. This work has important implications for practices implementing reminder systems.

The Rationale for IAGLR's Lifetime Achievement Award (LTA)

It is common practice for any cultural group to recognize its constituency with some form of distinction that is of value to the entire group (Kuhn 1962). Such accolades not only benefit and honor valuable activities of the individual being recognized, but also can serve as a “guidepost” to the cultural group regarding collective values that are beneficial to the function and existence of the group (see Covey 1999). Most professional societies tend to commemorate the activities of its members with various awards, and professional awards are usually directed toward individual excellence in scholarship (merit) or service to the society. The International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR), which promotes a wide range of research interests, has been in existence for some 40 years (Phillips and Veinot 1977). IAGLR evolved from the annual Conference for Great Lakes Research (Kramer 1977, Sweeney 1982). The mission of the society is to “promote all aspects of large lakes research, and communicate research findings through publications and meetings” (see www.iaglr.org). Until recently, however, IAGLR recognized meritorious contributions among its members with one award (Chandler-Misener Award, for the most notable paper in each volume of the journal). This award was established in 1971 to recognize research excellence presented in the best paper published each year; the name of the award honors the international roots of the society founders D. Misenser and D.C. Chandler (McNaught 1993, Beeton and Schneider 1998). Despite its mission, the number of IAGLR merit-oriented awards is low compared with that given by other

Remote sensing and the EPA Estuarine and Great Lakes Research Program

Remote sensing and the EPA Estuarine and Great Lakes Research Program

An overview of the impact of non-indigenous species on the food web integrity of North American Great Lakes: Lake Erie example

For the past several decades, the North American Great Lakes have suffered from eutrophication. The deteriorating state of the Great Lakes alarmed both the governments of Canada and the United States resulting in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which has brought about substantial improvements in water quality. While phosphorus abatement resulted in a significant decrease in nutrients, the sudden invasions of exotic species posed a serious threat to Great Lakes food webs. The zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and the quagga mussel (D. bugensis), followed by other exotic species, infested Lakes Erie and Ontario causing a drastic reduction in phytoplankton biomass and increasing water clarity. In Lake Erie, post-Dreissena declines in phytoplankton size structure and changes in community composition were observed in this study, along with significant declines in primary productivity in the west basin. At the other end of the food web, exotic species such as alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) and white perch (Morone americana) have become important to the Lake Erie commercial fishery, while other native fish species have declined. This paper presents an historical perspective and a general overview of the impact of nonindigenous species in the North American Great Lakes from the base of the food web to the fisheries. Lake Erie has been chosen as a case study to provide a detailed treatment. The expansion and growth of nonindigenous species has been responsible for significant modifications to the structural and functional characteristics of the food webs and fisheries of the Great Lakes. Our experience demonstrates the significance of the impact of exotics and the need to manage this serious problem on a global basis so that the integrity of food webs and fisheries throughout the world can be protected.This paper is dedicated to Dr. Jack Vallentyne for his contributions to Great Lakes research, especially for the implementation of the ‘ecosystem approach’. These contributions were in evidence in revisions to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and more currently in the management of exotic species.

Pelagic Bird Survey on Lake Ontario Following Hurricane Isabel, September 2003: Observations and Remarks on Methodology

The abundance and dispersion of pelagic waterbirds was measured on Lake Ontario during the aftermath of the storm system generated by Hurricane Isabel, September 2003. The purpose of this study was to determine whether standard shipboard methodologies developed for surveying pelagic seabirds from ships on the ocean are applicable on the Laurentian Great Lakes, and if so whether such surveys may provide information that cannot be acquired from shore-based surveys. The abundance of waterbirds was low in offshore Lake Ontario, but similar to oligotrophic ocean environments. Our results suggest that bird surveys are easy to conduct from Great Lakes research vessels, and are likely to provide information useful for monitoring ecosystem health in the Lakes.

Emerging Issues in Lake Superior Research

The Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS) sponsored the “Superior: State of the Lake” conference in Houghton, Michigan, which was hosted by the Michigan Technological University in May 2002. This was part of a continuing series of “State of the Lake” conferences organized by AEHMS following those on Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario, Michigan, Baikal, Victoria and Winnipeg. These conferences have been designed to integrate, synthesize, and publish “state of the lake” information about various Great Lakes of the World in peer reviewed book series (Ecovision World Monograph Series) or as special issues in the journal Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, published by AEHMS. The Society has an excellent track record of publishing special issues on the Great lakes of the world: Large Lakes of the World: Comparative Ecology(AEHM, 2000a); Ecosystem Health of Lake Baikal, Russia(AEHM, 2000b); Great Lakes of the World: Food web, Fisheries and management (AEHM, 2002); Comparing Great Lakes of the World(AEHM, 2003). The AEHMS has also published several monographs: The Lake Huron Ecosystem: Ecology, Fisheries and Management(Munawar et al., 1995); State of Lake Erie: Past, Present and Future(Munawar et al., 1999); Phytoplankton Dynamics in the North American Great Lakes, volume 1(Munawar and Munawar, 1996); volume 2(Munawar and Munawar, 2000); Great Lakes of the World-GLOW: Food-web, Health & Integrity (Munwar and Hecky, 2001); State of Lake Ontario (SOLO): Past, Present and Future(Munawar, 2003).Very little has been published about this lake since “Limnology of Lake Superior” was published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research (Munawar, 1978). It was based on the Upper Great Lakes symposium convened at the Great Lakes Research Conference in Guelph, Ontario, 1976. The “State of the lake” conference on Lake Superior convened almost 25 years after the Guelph meeting. This conference provided an excellent opportunity for various Great Lakes researchers to present new data on diverse topics, and to interact with peers on various aspects of large lakes research. The conference was convened to provide a forum to discuss ecosystem health in scientific and management circles, increased development of eco-technologies, sensitivity of large oligotrophic ecosystems such as Lake Superior to environmental stress, and the challenging complexity of integrating topics such as ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, restoration and sustainable development. The conference's theme reflected an integration of a large range of topics and concepts to bring together a state-of-the-art status of Lake Superior, which will be published by the AEHMS in a peer reviewed Ecovision monograph currently under preparation.This special issue has been designed to focus on “Emerging issues in Lake Superior research,” one of the main topics from the conference. Lake Superior provides unique opportunities for research because of its size, ultraoligotrophic status (similar to some ultraoligotrophic oceanic regions) and its relatively low density of human population centers and industrial activities. It is the largest lake in the world by surface area and the second largest by volume. Understanding of its paleo-history depends on a detailed determination of relict shorelines; in this issue Baedke et al. present results of their current efforts to reconstruct the paleo-lake levels of the Upper Great Lakes. Investigators interested in the biogeochemistry of ultraoligotrophic freshwater ecosystems have focused their attention on this lake. In this special issue several reports identify emerging issues in contemporary limnology that are well examined in Lake Superior.Increasing interest in the role of dissolved organic matter is evident in several of the papers of this issue. Cotner et al. discuss the biogeochemistry of organic carbon, noting that the DOC pool is 10 times as large as the particulate organic carbon pool and that improved understanding of DOC origin and fate is critical for understanding C-flux in this lake. Heath and Munawar discuss the significance of phosphate uptake by bacteria and note increasing evidence that the apportionment of available P between bacterioplankton and phytoplankton appears to depend on the availability of “labile” DOC to support bacterial activities. McKay et al. present interesting thoughts regarding the possibility that Lake Superior phytoplankton may be limited by iron availability; in turn, iron availability may be mediated by DOC complexation. Perlinger et al. report emerging technologies to detect and determine the physico-chemical and biochemical properties, food web fluxes and bioaccumulation pathways of “legacy” chemicals and novel synthetic organic toxicants that are introduced to lake Superior primarily through atmospheric deposition. Edsall et al. report the use of Hexagenia burrowing mayflies in a benthic survey as a sensitive indicator of ecosystem health status in two embayments of Lake Superior. We hope that this compendium of papers will be useful in highlighting some of the research being carried out and in enhancing our current understanding of one of the largest and most pristine lakes of the world.

The distribution of heavy metals in the Sidi Moussa lagoon sediments (Atlantic Moroccan Coast)

The superficial and cored sediments of the Sidi Moussa lagoon (Atlantic Moroccan coast) have been analysed in order to determine their main characteristics and their heavy metals contents. Two groups of metals can be distinguished: Al, Fe and Cu whose distribution is mainly governed by the intra-lagoonal dynamics. These contents are near of those of the natural geochemical background noise that underlines their natural origin. Zn, Cr and Ni have relatively more elevated contents than the natural geochemical background noise indicating human-made pollution. The geo-accumulation indicator shows that the Sidi Moussa lagoon is moderately polluted. The totality of results in this context compared to the standard values suggested by the Agency of Protection of the Environment of United States [Journal of Great Lakes Research 11 (1985) 353] leads to the conclusion that the sediments of Sidi Moussa lagoon would rank as ‘slightly polluted’ for, Cu, Zn, Cr and Ni.

Sex-biased dispersal in a salmonid fish.

We tested the hypothesis that dispersal is sex biased in an unexploited population of brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, on Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada. Based on the assumptions that trout are promiscuous and that reproductive success is limited primarily by either number of mates (males) or fecundity (females), we predicted that males would disperse greater distances than females. We also tested the hypothesis that trout populations comprise stationary and mobile individuals, predicting that males have greater mobility than females. Based on a mark-recapture study of 943 individually tagged fishes, 191 of which were recaptured over 5 years, we find strong support for our hypothesis of male-biased dispersal in brook trout. Averaged among all 11 resampling periods, males dispersed 2.5 times as far as females; during the spawning period only, male dispersal exceeded that by females almost fourfold. Both sexes were heterogeneous with respect to movement, with a lower incidence of mobility among females (29.6%) than males (41.1%); mobile males dispersed six times further than mobile females. We conclude that this sex bias reduces mate competition among male kin and decreases the probability that males will reproduce with related females.

Do rare species have any place in multivariate analysis for bioassessment?

Cao et al. (2001) have recently published an assessment of the place of rare species in multivariate analyses associated with bioassessment. This assessment follows their earlier comments on this subject (Cao et al. 1998, Cao and Williams 1999) and criticism of their viewpoint (Marchant 1999). In their earlier comments Cao et al. (1998) claimed that elimination of rare species from data sets unduly biases the similarity measures used in multivariate analyses of community composition and results in an ‘‘unacceptable loss of ecological information’’. Marchant (1999) refuted this claim by noting that when rare taxa are eliminated from data sets the trends displayed by multivariate analyses are unaltered and that benthic data sets, both from freshwater and marine habitats, commonly contain much redundant information. If, as Cao et al. (1998) claimed, rare species are vital for multivariate analysis, then logically the less rare species and the common species must also be vital. In other words, all species are vital and, as Marchant (1999) noted, this amounts to saying that no redundancy exists. Such a claim is contrary to common experience. Cao et al. (2001) admitted that rare species may not be important when environmental gradients are strong. However, they suggested that rare species respond to different gradients, perhaps less important and subtle ones or those related to human impacts. They provided little evidence from the literature that such situations exist but they quoted a paper by Faith and Norris (1989) as supporting this view. Faith and Norris (1989) reanalyzed a study conducted in the La Trobe catchment of eastern Victoria, Australia (Metzeling et al. 1984, Marchant et al. 1985). Using all 269 taxa (mostly at genus or species level) Faith and Norris (1989) compared ordinations with and without rare taxa, as well as ordinations based solely on rare taxa (those with total abundances ,0.5% of the total abundance of all taxa). They showed that inclusion of rare taxa resulted in a greater number of sig-

Consequences and mechanisms of action of fish-borne toxicants: what we do not know and why

We summarize and discuss issues that emerged from a workshop entitled ‘Human and Animal Neurotoxicology—From Exposure to Great Lakes Pollutants’ that was held as part of the May 2000 Annual Meeting of the International Association of Great Lakes Research in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. The most apparent and distressing finding was the lack of communication that currently exists between scientists of different sub-disciplines—including in vitro and in vivo toxicologists, epidemiologists and risk assessors. Although all participants agreed that integrated, multi-disciplinary research is the only avenue that offers a realistic chance of identifying, characterizing and eventually preventing the adverse consequences of developmental exposure to neurological and reproductive toxicants, there was little consensus on how to achieve this goal. We leave to the readers of this Special Issue of Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology the daunting task of implementing the greater degree of communication needed to begin to solve problems due to developmental exposure to environmental contaminants.

Great Lakes research – Important human health findings and their impact on ATSDR's Superfund research program

AbstractThe Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) was created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, commonly known as Superfund. ATSDR is the principal United States federal public health agency involved with issues of public health and applied science concerning the human health impact of living in the vicinity of a hazardous waste site, or emergencies resulting from unplanned releases of hazardous substances into community environments. In pursuing these mandates, ATSDR's mission is to prevent exposure and adverse human health effects and diminished quality of life associated with exposure to hazardous substances from waste sites, unplanned releases, and other sources of pollution present in the environment. There are more than 2,000 toxic substances found at hazardous waste sites in the United States. ATSDR has developed a prioritized list of 275 substances that pose the greatest hazard to human health. In conducting its work ATSDR has identified data gaps in knowledge about the toxicity of various hazardous substances as well as gaps in human exposure characterization. As part of its mandate, ATSDR initiated a Substance-Specific Applied Research Program (SSARP) to address these data gaps. The ATSDR Great Lakes Human Health Effects Research Program (GLHHERP) is a congressionally-mandated research program that characterizes exposure to persistent toxic substances and investigates the potential for adverse health outcome in at-risk populations. The research findings from this program in the areas of exposure, sociodemographic data, and health effects have significant public health implications for ATSDR's Superfund research activities.

Trimmed NOAA budget supports agency programs

Although the Bush Administration has proposed a decrease in the budget of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of $60.8 million, or 2%below FY01 enacted levels, its proposed FY02 budget generally supports NOAAs programs and goals, and makes ends meet by not including Congressional earmarks. What is unclear, though, is what might happen to the budget balancing act if Congress adds earmarks, and if advocates are successful in increasing funding for some areas slated for cuts, including programs related to coastal and Great Lakes research.

International Association for Great Lakes Research Five Year Plan: 1999–2004: Work Plan to Achieve the Five Year Plan Objectives

1) Promote Research and Education on the Great Lakes and other Large Lakes of the World; 2) Continue to Improve the Quality and Scientific Prestige of the Journal of Great Lakes Research; 3) Improve the Quality and Management of the Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research; 4) Ensure the Integrity and the Longevity of the Association will be Achieved by Focusing on Membership Retainment and Growth, and by Assuring the Association’s Financial Stability.