Download Lake Erie - New York Sea Grant

Lake Erie
Grants No. 0528674 (NSF) and NA06OAR4170017 (NOAA)
Created by: Helen Domske, NY Sea Grant
Bathymetry of Lake Erie
NOAA GLERL
Physical Characteristics
Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes in
volume (119 cubic miles) and is exposed to the
greatest effects from urbanization and agriculture.
Measuring 241 miles across and 57 miles from north
to south, the lake's surface is just under 10,000
square miles, with 871 miles of shoreline.
The average depth of Lake Erie is only about 62 feet
(210 feet, maximum).
The drainage basin covers parts of Indiana,
Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and
Ontario.
Credit: Great Lakes Information Network
Credit: Lake Erie Lakewide Management Plan
Changing issues over time
Atmospheric Change
Pharmaceuticals
Endocrine Disruptors
Ecosystem Health
Concerns
Human Health
Fish Harvest
Oligotrophication
Eutrophication
Beaches
AOCs
Water Levels
Wetlands
Fish Habitat
food chain
bythetrephes
gobies
ruffe
quagga mussels
Exotic Species: zebra mussels
wildlife
fish
sediment
Contaminants: water
aesthetics
oxygen
Eutrophication: phosphorus
Fish, Pollution
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!960s
!970s
Time
!980s
!990s
2000s
Lake Erie Yesterday
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Originally, natural undeveloped lands
Industrialization, urbanization, agriculture
Habitat loss
Nutrient loadings
Eutrophication
Lake Erie was “dying”
Lake Erie LaMP
Lake Erie Today
+ Healthier than 30 years ago
+ Sewage treatment upgrades
+ Controlling phosphates
- Contaminated sediments
- Exotic species
Although Lake Erie is better in
regards to phosphorus, all of
these issues are still with us.
Lake Erie LaMP
In the 1991 reprint of the book, the
last line has been deleted.
You’re glumping the
pond where the
Humming-Fish
hummed!
No more can they
hum, for their gills
are all gummed.
So I’m sending them
off. Oh, their
future is dreary.
They’ll walk on their
fins and get
woefully weary.
In search of some
water that isn’t so
smeary.
PA Sea Grant
I hear things are
just as bad up in
Lake Erie.
Diverse Habitats
beaches
rocky coasts
sand dunes
islands
wetlands
open waters
Lake Erie LaMP
Credit: Loretta Cicerrella
Habitat Loss and Degradation
• Loss of wetlands habitat is a key issue.
• Wetlands are ecologically, economically
and socially important to ecosystem health.
• Open waters, islands, tributaries, shoreline
as well as swamp forest habitats have been
identified as impaired.
• Major stressors include changing land use
and altered hydrology.
Human Communities
• One-third of Great Lakes population lives
in the Lake Erie basin.
• Lake Erie is one of the most heavily
populated freshwater lakes in the world.
Lake Erie supplies drinking water
for about 11 million people
Lake Erie LaMP
Biotic Communities
• Great biological diversity
• Over 130 fish species in the basin
• Abundant bird, mammal, amphibian,
reptilian, invertebrate and plant species
Lake Erie LaMP
Species at Risk
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Lake Sturgeon
Eastern Sand Darter
Freshwater Mussels
Lake Erie Water Snake
Fowler’s Toad
Piping Plover
American Chestnut
Lake Erie LaMP
Lake Erie Water Snake
• The Lake Erie Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon insularum) is found
only on the islands in the western end of Lake Erie. It is a,
brownish, pale gray or lightly patterned water snake that is a
subspecies of the darker and more widespread Northern Water
Snake (Nerodia sipedon). The pale coloration of the Lake Erie
Water Snake is an adaptation to local habitat features of its island
habitat, notably the pale gray limestone common in shoreline areas.
Phosphorus Management
• In the past, too much phosphorus created
ecosystem problems including “dead zones”
• Target levels for reductions have been met
since the late 1980s
• The subsequent invasion of zebra mussels
and other ecosystem changes have reduced
phosphorus levels impacting biological
productivity
This issue continues to be controversial.
Chemical Contaminants
Copper
PCBs and mercury have priority status
Lake Erie LaMP
Primary Stressors
• Chemical contaminants
• Habitat loss and degradation
• Exotics species
Remediation of any one of these causes without
addressing the others will not fully restore Lake Erie
Lake Erie LaMP
Benthification
• Lake Erie has changed
from an open water
system to a benthic
system due to zebra
and quagga mussel
activity.
Lake Erie has always supported a strong commercial fishery.
Commercial fishing began around 1820 and expanded about 20% per
year until the 1880s when some species in Lake Erie began to decline.
The Good Old Days….
1832: Buffalo, NY - Near mouth of harbor on May 12, lake trout catch of 17,547 lbs.
1859: Pomfret, NY becomes Dunkirk, NY – William Johnson takes 75 lb. lake trout
1866: Sandusky, OH - 40-50 tons of fish/day average; Largest whitefish ever caught
in Lake Erie (15 lbs.) on April 30
Dunkirk, NY - 2,000 lbs catch, most of which were lake trout averaging 10 lbs.
One fish caught outside harbor weighs 70 lbs. and is 41/2 feet long
1875: 150,000 whitefish fry stocked by US Fish and Fisheries Commission
Detroit River to Cuyahoga River – 500 pound nets harvest 18 million pounds of
fish, excluding herring; included 12 million pounds of whitefish
1891: Objects seen at 30 feet deep; herring runs good
Point Burwell, ON: 3 lake trout taken at 40 pounds each
Photo: H. Domske
Information: NYSDEC
The Good Old Days….
1892: Middle Bass Island – lake herring catches of 4,500 lbs per pound net
Huron, OH - herring catches of 2,377 pounds per net
Vermillion, OH – almost unbroken lines of gill net extend into Canadian waters,
shutting the schools of herring off from the spawning areas off the
islands and the head of the lake
1893: Detroit, MI – “Whitefish all out of Lake Erie, and we are after the herring now.”
Port Clinton, OH – herring catch from one firm of 35 tons
Lorain, OH - Gill net herring catch of 54 tons in 7 days
Cleveland, OH – 12 tons of herring in one day
1898: Point Maitland, ON – 371/2 pound lake trout; large quantities of lake trout,
some over 30 lbs.
1899: Point Maitland, ON – 6,000 lbs. whitefish, one of which weighed 19 lbs.
Information: NYSDEC
Decline of the Fishery
Overfishing, pollution,
shoreline and stream
habitat destruction, and
accidental and
deliberate introduction
of non-native invasive
species, such as the
sea lamprey, all played
a part in the decline of
the fishery.
Fishery Management
• In 1954, the U.S. and Canada signed the
Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries.
• In 1955, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission
was established to be the forum for state,
federal, tribal and provincial fishery agencies to
coordinate their research and management.
• The Joint Strategic Plan for Management of
Great Lakes Fisheries was signed in 1981 by
state, federal and provincial fish management
agencies to formalize their commitment to lake
committees as their ‘major action arm’.
Source: GL Fishery Commission
Lake Erie’s Fish & Fishing
Today, only pockets of the once large commercial
fishery remain. For Canada, the Lake Erie fishery
(11 species) remains prosperous, and represents
nearly two-thirds of the country's total Great Lakes
harvest. On the U.S. side of Lake Erie, the
commercial fishery is based primarily on walleye
and perch.
Yellow Perch
Source: GL Fishery Commission
Photo: H. Domske
Canadian Gill Net Boat – Port Stanley, Ontario
Lake Erie Dead Zone – Anoxic Areas
Source: Dr. Bill Edwards, Niagara University
How does a hypolimnion
go hypoxic?
Increased
Nutrients
N, K, P, Si
Phytoplankton
Bloom
Increased
Death &
Decay
Heterotrophic
Bacteria
Decompose
Oxygen is
Depleted
www.abe.msstate.edu/csd/stride_00/eutrop_1.gif
Dr. Bill Edwards, Niagara University
The Oxygen Budget
Air Surface Interface
02 out
Epilimnion
02 in
02 out
02 in
02 in
Water Column
Respiration
Phytoplankton
Production of O2
02 out
Thermocline
Sediment
Oxygen Demand
Hypolimnion
02 out
Sediment
Water Column
Respiration
02 out
Dr. Bill Edwards, Niagara University
Credit: Bolsenga and Herdendorf
Credit: USEPA
Credit: NOAA GLERL
Microcystis Bloom – Western Basin
Credit: NOAA GLERL
Credit: NOAA GLERL
WESTERN BASIN
CENTRAL BASIN
ALGAL
BLOOMS
MORE
ALGAL
BLOOMS
NUTRIENT ENRICHED
WATER
TRANSPORT
MIXING
SINK AND
DIE
NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS
DECOMPOSITION BY
BACTERIA  “Dead Zone”
FORMATION
Photo from OSU Dept. of Agriculture
* Conroy, J.D., D.D. Kane, D.M. Dolan, W.J. Edwards, M.N. Charlton, and D.A. Culver. Recent Increases in Lake Erie Plankton Biomass: Roles of External
Phosphorus Loading and Dreissenid Mussels. In review, Journal of Great Lakes Research.
Credit: Dr. Bill Edwards, Niagara University
Lake Effect Snow
Tobacco
Cultivation
Ontario
Photos: H. Domske
Old Woman Creek
Ohio