Co-Occurrence Patterns of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates in Laurentian Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands.

In niche-based community assembly theory, it is presumed that communities in habitats with high natural disturbance regimes are less likely to be structured by competitive mechanisms. Laurentian Great Lakes (hereafter Great Lakes) coastal wetlands can experience drastic diel fluctuations in dissolved oxygen levels, severe wave action, ice scour, and near complete freezing during the winter such that conditions are inhospitable for most organisms. The high natural disturbance levels are thought to cause high interannual turnover for aquatic macroinvertebrate communities and support the hypothesis that these communities are less likely to experience less competitive interactions and negative co-occurrence structure.

King Rail () presence in the Midwestern United States is predicted by local-scale factors and avian community.

The King Rail () is a wetland dependent species of conservation concern. Our objective was to gain a better understanding of the breeding habitat associations of King Rails in the Midwestern United States and the relationship of this species to other obligate marsh birds using occupancy and MaxEnt models. To collect data pertaining to occupancy, we placed trail cameras at 50 random points in coastal wetlands in the western Lake Erie basin where calls of King Rails were continuously broadcast at night.

The influence of extreme water levels on coastal wetland extent across the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetlands (GLCW) are ecological hotspots and their integrity depends upon dynamic hydrologic regimes of the Great Lakes. GLCW naturally adjust to changes in hydrologic regimes via migration, but Great Lakes water levels may be shifting faster than wetlands can manage: 2000-2015 marked an extended low water level period and was followed by record highs in 2017-2020. Our objective was to quantify how Great Lakes water levels impact GLCW linear extent (from the shoreline to open water).

Relative contributions of nearshore and wetland habitats to coastal food webs in the Great Lakes.

Hydrologic linkages among coastal wetland and nearshore areas allow coastal fish to move among the habitats, which has led to a variety of habitat use patterns. We determined nutritional support of coastal fishes from 12 wetland-nearshore habitat pairs using stable isotope analyses, which revealed differences among species and systems in multi-habitat use. Substantial (proportions > 0.

Leveraging a Landscape-Level Monitoring and Assessment Program for Developing Resilient Shorelines throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Traditionally, ecosystem monitoring, conservation, and restoration have been conducted in a piecemeal manner at the local scale without regional landscape context. However, scientifically driven conservation and restoration decisions benefit greatly when they are based on regionally determined benchmarks and goals. Unfortunately, required data sets rarely exist for regionally important ecosystems.

Microbial community structure and microbial networks correspond to nutrient gradients within coastal wetlands of the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Microbial communities within the soil of Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetlands drive biogeochemical cycles and provide several other ecosystem services. However, there exists a lack of understanding of how microbial communities respond to nutrient gradients and human activity in these systems. This research sought to address the lack of understanding through exploration of relationships among nutrient gradients, microbial community diversity, and microbial networks.

Microbial subnetworks related to short-term diel O2 fluxes within geochemically distinct freshwater wetlands.

Oxygen (O2) concentrations often fluctuate over diel timescales within wetlands, driven by temperature, sunlight, photosynthesis and respiration. These daily fluxes have been shown to impact biogeochemical transformations (e.g.

An expanded fish-based index of biotic integrity for Great Lakes coastal wetlands.

Biotic indicators are useful for assessing ecosystem health because the structure of resident communities generally reflects abiotic conditions integrated over time. We used fish data collected over 5 years for 470 Great Lakes coastal wetlands to develop multi-metric indices of biotic integrity (IBI). Sampling and IBI development were stratified by vegetation type within each wetland to account for differences in physical habitat.

Microbial community diversity patterns are related to physical and chemical differences among temperate lakes near Beaver Island, MI.

Lakes are dynamic and complex ecosystems that can be influenced by physical, chemical, and biological processes. Additionally, individual lakes are often chemically and physically distinct, even within the same geographic region. Here we show that differences in physicochemical conditions among freshwater lakes located on (and around) the same island, as well as within the water column of each lake, are significantly related to aquatic microbial community diversity.

Sediment contamination and faunal communities in two subwatersheds of Mona Lake, Michigan.

Urbanization of watersheds can impose multiple stressors on stream, wetland, and lake ecosystems. Sediment contamination, alterations to the natural hydrologic regime, and nutrient loading are examples of these stressors which often occur simultaneously. As a consequence, restoration is challenged by the multi-stressor reality of most urban watersheds.