Ecosystems of the Great Lakes: Lake Erie
Lake Erie is a fascinating biological system despite many years of climate and human destruction along with ecosystem challenges. The burning river now has become the greatest ecosystem recovery of the world.
Lake Erie is one of the first of the Great Lakes formed by the glaciers receding between 1 and 12,600 million years ago. Lake Erie borders New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Canadian Province, Ontario. Lake Erie is about 241 miles long, about 57 miles wide and has about 871 miles of shoreline. The length of Ohio's shoreline is about 312 miles. It has three basins: the western which averages about 24 feet, central which averages 60 feet and eastern basin. The eastern basin averages about 80 feet with a maximum depth are 210 feet which make it the deepest. The water surface area is about 9,910 square miles and the volume is about 116 cubic miles. The Detroit River water flow makes up
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Great blue herons, Sandhill cranes common yellowthroat warblers, and even Bald Eagles are found wading, fishing, or nesting in the mudflats and reeds of the Lake Erie wetlands. The Lake Erie's marsh is particularly important globally because this is where migratory birds stop on their long journeys including more than 30 species of shorebirds, waterfowl, tundra swans, canvasbacks, red-breasted Mergansers, and songbirds. While birds flock to the mud flats and vegetation, fish spawn in the wetland shallows. With the exception of the Gulf coast, no other region of eastern North America can demonstrate concentrations of avian migrants like Lake Erie’s coastline. 75 to 90% of Great Lakes fish species use wetlands as a nursery ground, allowing species like the walleye, muskellunge, large-mouth Bass, northern pike, and many
As if there weren’t enough problems for scientists trying to save the Great Lakes Eco System. Many non-native species have entered the eco system and many of them are harmful. Every species in itself has played a role in the eco system. These non-native species make it increasingly difficult for the Great Lakes Eco System to be regulated.
Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable. GLRPPR, 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
Perhaps the most devastating disregard of the Fraser Valley’s biodiversity was the draining of Sumas Lake to create farmland, resulting in the loss of habitat and the extirpation of endemic species. As it was originally intended to be, the Fraser Valley was a “perhaps unparalleled ecosystem” (Rosenau, p. 55), with bountiful wetlands and remarkable biodiversity. The European settlers 150 years ago considered it to be “wasteland” (Thom, p. 172), certainly uninhabitable and a breeding ground for mosquitoes, so the most logical thing to do would be to drain the body of water once known as Sumas Lake...
The Hudson Plains ecozone, in northern Ontario and parts of Manitoba and Quebec, is an area of wetlands. The climate is generally cool. The northern part of the ecozone is full of shrubs, but no trees, and areas farther south contain forests. Wet have vegetation such as moss and lichen and also some trees like willow, tamarack and black spruce. More northern, drier locations have vegetation consisting of many shrubs such as crowberry and blueberry. In the summer, the wetlands of the Hudson Plains attract millions of migratory birds, such as snow geese, Canada geese and king eider ducks. Mammals which can be found here include moose and black bear, but small mammals such as muskrats and weasels are more common.
Admittedly, 2/3 of the world’s population living with water shortages is a scary enough statistic to send a shiver up the spine. Barlow doesn’t stop there however; she goes on to say that only 2 % of the U.S. rivers and wetlands remain untouched. What does that mean for the creatures that lived there? Covered that too, “37% of freshwater fish are at risk of ...
The effects of deforestation around my home and throughout my state are becoming more evident every day. When a deer or other wild game loses its home, they move into cities, urban areas, and parks; thus causing issues with the human population. Most people living in Illinois have hit or nearly killed a deer driving on Southern Illinois roadways. This common occurrence could be kept at bay or maybe even avoided if the deer and wild game had more space to reside. There are many points that coincide with this reality but the main issues are the small subtle ones that affect everyday life and are often overlooked. Picture the Illinois we will leave for our children. Do you see a lush green forest or miles and miles of concrete and steel?
Once More to the Lake and The Pond. White and Thoreau, two diverse minds. When you look into their writings you seem to find something that rises to your attention, some of what you see seems to fit into the others writing. Yet taking a closer look you see that they are not particularly saying the same thing. Is it because they felt like writing or did something cause these writers to exploit there minds and make something out of their thoughts? Every sentence and every word say something much deeper. When reading these writings you have to look deep within the writing. You begin to notice you are reading something quite fascinating.
Fish habitat is the underwater world which many people do not see. It is just like the world that people live. Fish and plants reproduce, eat, and live in this environment, and even face challenges such as invasive species. It is said that “Invasive species are non-native species that threaten the diversity or abundance of native species due to their uncontrollable population growth, causing ecological or economic impacts” (“Invasive” par. 1). Vegetation plays a big role for fish habitat and for a lake itself. Aquatic habitat provides living space for not only fish but also for many aquatic insects. These insects then in turn provide fish and other species of animals with food (“Native” par. 4).
Maintaining ecological diversity is necessary for the survival of a biological community. In the United States, American citizens are on the verge of irrevocably damaging one of the country's most unique and diverse treasures - the Florida Everglades. This national park is now the only remaining patch of a river that used to span 120 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Dikes and levees created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940's drained this river to reduce flooding and increase useable water for the development of the region. This major diversion of water lead to a trickle down effect causing the continual decline of the environmental state of the Everglades. Since then, debates over the Everglades' future have silently raged on for years about how, why, and when the restoration will begin. This ongoing, but virtually unproductive effort has cost taxpayers a great deal without any apparent benefits. Recently, this debate has been amplified by the voices of the sugar industry in Florida, which was attacked for its major contribution to pollution of the Everglades. Now debates rage on with a new effort called the Restudy. Backed by the Army Corps of Engineers, this effort would change the flow of the Everglades, potentially restoring it into the viable community of life that it used to be. The question now is, will this latest attempt to restore the Everglades ever be realized (thus ending the cyclic Everglades debate) or will it simply add up to one more notch on the bedpost of inadequate and failed attempts to save this national treasure. The world is watching to see how the United States will handle this unprecedented cleanup.
The algal growths in the lake feed on phosphorus mostly caused by fertilizer runoff from farms and local residences. Microcystin, a toxin that causes liver problems, is produced by the growths have caused major health concerns for wildlife and people using the lake. It is our moral obligation to clean up this mess or it will continue to harm the wildlife and environment in and the lake, as we are the one’s solely responsible for it. Organizations such as the Ohio EPA and Buckeye Lake for Tomorrow, have taken a notice to the pollution of Buckeye Lake and are formulating plans to return the lake to its former glory. Our plan is to provide a short term solution for the lake via the process of dredging, while a much larger and permanent solution is put in
As global temperatures and ocean levels rise, the water levels of the Great Lakes continues to fall. As the lakes hit their all time lowest level in global history in 2012, society remains ignorant to the imposing doom that lurks ahead. Since the Great Lakes make up the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth and are responsible for approximately 21% of the Earth’s fresh water supply, this issue is becoming one of the largest environmental and economical issues our modern world faces. The effects of this issue include destroying animal habitats and a major economic market; shipping. Water levels in the Great Lakes have been dropping for the past fourteen years, but it wasn’t until boats were scraping the bottom of Lake Huron that people began to take notice. This terrible environmental issue has been dubbed a long term cycle of over evaporation and not enough precipitation to replenish the Lakes. Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit has been monitoring this issue for a decade and has made startling discoveries, such as in 2012, he discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Huron’s water levels only rose four inches after winter, whereas the Lakes have been regularly recorded as gaining a foot of water after the winter season had ended. This amount of water added is not enough to maintain a proper water level during the dry, hot summer seasons that evaporate much water from the Great Lakes. While some scientists say that this is just a cycle that will adjust itself naturally, most experts that have been studying this phenomenon, such as Kompoltwicz, would agree that the issue has gone to far
In 1982 the Great Salt Lake had begun to rise once more and Williams’ mother’s cancer had returned. As naturalist-in-residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History, she was interested in the effect this rise in the lake would have on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as well as the measures implemented by the state to control this unprecedented rise. The Great Salt Lake preserved many of Williams’ childhood memories in its briny waters. Its rising waters threatened to destroy everything that had grown from it and depended on its stability. Williams believed that left on its own the lake would right itself. ...
...ughout much of their continent-wide breeding range is proof that to manage wildlife; you need to manage their ecosystems. Wet weather, combined with abundant nesting cover provided by the federal Conservation Reserve Program, have shown that wetland and grassland ecosystems are what make or break duck populations. The same is true for all other species, game and non-game. (R. Holmes). (1)
My childhood trips to Lake Michigan form part of my identity as a Michigander. Lake Michigan is a system of five, fresh water lakes dubbed the great lakes. Four out of the five great Lakes surround the state of Michigan; as a result most Michiganders travel a nearby Great Lake in the summer. Like other Michiganders, my family heads to Lake Michigan every summer to spend time on Lake Michigan. My Grandmother purchased a trailer by the Lakeshore and allowed her eight children to spend a week of summer on the Lakeshore. Over the years my vacations on Lake Michigan shaped great memories for me.
Rogers, Peter. 2008. "Facing the Freshwater CRISIS. (Cover story)." Scientific American 299, no. 2: 46-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 4, 2010).