Case Study of the Laurentian Great Lakes

Change and the Great Lakes of North America

Two sessions concerning environmental change in the Great Lakes of North America and its future management.

Three major simultaneous types of change have been occurring during the last two hundred years in the Laurentian Lakes Region:

1. Large scale hydrological and catchment change through deforestation and the introduction of agriculture
2. Introduction of extra nutrients and toxins
3. Gross change in Biodiversity through over exploitation and introduction of Alien species

You should become familiar with each of these aspects and understand how they interact

BIOL468 web pages: Title: Environmental change and the North American (Laurentian) Great Lakes contain a relatively simple explanation of the whole problem but see below for a recommended published paper giving a more substantive account - Rankin 2002) (Virtually the same notes are provided as interactive web pages or for download)

Relevant, Major Sites on WWW

Great Lakes Fisheries Commission - http://www.glfc.org/home.php
Great Lakes Information Network : http://www.great-lakes.net/

For info on Great lakes Native fish see
For invasive fish in the Great Lakes of North America http://www.glfc.org/fishmgmt/exotic.php
and also see our general page on Invasive fish
Contaminants in Fish - example of advice to fishermen : http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/safety.html

Trends in Contaminants in Great Lakes Fish - http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/noframe/m2131.htm

Threat to Sturgeon from collapse of USSR -http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/news/2001/SturgeonFacts.pdf

Recommended Research Papers etc for download

see page on suggested reading

Page Author: Dr Rick T Leah, Univ of L'pool - Contents last reviewed 05/01/2007