The Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem
- The Great Lakes ecosystem is the largest freshwater ecosystem
in the world!
- The Great Lakes ecosystem is an extensive watershed (288,000
square miles) with 5,000 tributaries and 9,000 miles of shoreline.
- For commercial vessels, the St. Lawrence Seaway-Great
Lakes system comprises a journey extending 2000 nautical miles into
the agricultural and industrial heartland of North America!
- The Great Lakes ecosystem, shared by the United States
and Canada, is home to 35 million people who depend upon its incredible
natural resources for recreation, agriculture, industry, and utilities.
- Within the Great Lakes ecosystem, water-related recreational
activities are valued at $15 billion annually, of which sport fishing
activities contribute $4 billion.
- Fish species of special interest within the ecosystem
include:
Lake trout
Brook trout
Lake sturgeon |
Yellow perch
Lake whitefish
Muskellunge
|
Walleye
Chinook salmon
Coho salmon |
- The Great Lakes ecosystem provides important migration
corridors and critical breeding, feeding, and resting areas for numerous
species of migratory and resident birds - especially waterfowl, colonial
nesting birds, and neotropical migrants.
- Non-game migratory birds of management concern within
the ecosystem include:
American bittern
Least bittern
Double-crested cormorant
Northern goshawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Black rail
|
Yellow rail
Black tern
Wood thrush
Bobolink
Dickcissel
Eastern meadowlark |
Common tern
Sedge wren
Cerulean warbler
Golden-winged warbler
Grasshopper sparrow
Henslow's sparrow
|
- A recent survey of biological diversity identified 130
globally endangered or rare plant and animal species which inhabit the
Great Lakes ecosystem.
- Animals and plants which are federally-listed as threatened
or endangered within the ecosystem include:
birds
Bald eagle*
Kirtland's warbler**
Piping plover**
mammals
Canada Lynx*
Gray wolf*
Indiana Bat** |
plants
Dwarf lake iris*
Eastern prairie fringed orchid*
Houghton's goldenrod*
Lakeside daisy*
reptiles
Copperbelly water snake*
Lake Erie water snake*
|
insects
Karner Blue butterfly**
Mitchell's satyr butterfly**
Hine's emerald dragonfly**
invertebrates
White cat's paw pearly mussel**
|
* = Federally-listed
threatened species
** = Federally-listed endangered species |
- Unfortunately, the Great Lakes ecosystem is subject to
the ever-increasing introduction and spread of non-indigenous animals
and plants, such as the sea lamprey, Eurasian ruffe, round goby, zebra
mussel, rusty crayfish, and purple loosestrife.
|
