The benthic community of the Laurentian Great Lakes: analysis of spatial gradients and temporal trends from 1998-2014.

We used the results of seventeen years of Great Lakes benthic monitoring conducted by the U.S. EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office to describe the spatial and temporal patterns of benthic communities, assess their status, trends, and main drivers, and to infer the potential impact of these community changes on ecosystem functioning.

Estimation of the width of the nearshore zone in Lake Michigan using eleven years of MODIS satellite imagery.

The nearshore zone, that region of water directly influenced by its proximity to the coast, has received increasing attention in recent years. The extent of the nearshore zone has been defined by some constant descriptive feature: e.g.

Using Satellite Observations to Assess the Spatial Representativeness of the GLNPO Water Quality Monitoring Program.

The U.S. EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) annual water quality survey (WQS) collects data at a relatively small number of stations in each lake.

Life after : The decline of exotic suspension feeder may have significant impacts on lake ecosystems.

It is well documented that the introduction of dreissenid bivalves in eutrophic lakes is usually associated with decreases in turbidity and total phosphorus concentrations in the water column, concomitant increases in water clarity, as well as other physical changes to habitat that may have cascading effects on other species in the invaded waterbody. In contrast, there is a paucity of data on the ecological ramifications of the elimination or decline of dreissenids due to pollution, bottom hypoxia, or other mechanisms. Using data collected by the U.

A Comparative Examination of Recent Changes in Nutrients and Lower Food Web Structure in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

The lower food webs of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have experienced similar reductions in the spring phytoplankton bloom and summer populations of and cladocerans since the early 2000s. At the same time phosphorus concentrations have decreased and water clarity and silica concentrations have increased. Key periods of change, identified by using a method based on sequential t-tests, were 2003-2005 (Huron) and 2004-2006 (Michigan).