~Team members~

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Names / Roles:

[Syahirah Nabilah] (Leader)
[Shariffah Munirah] (Wiki Writer)
[Toh Xin Le] (Researcher)
[Claudia Chua] (Researcher)

Overview

The Great Lakes contains Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario and their connecting channels form the largest fresh surface water system on Earth. Covering more than 243460 square kilometers and draining more than twice as much land, these Freshwater Seas hold an estimated 6 quadrillion gallons of water, about one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water supply. The Ontario is the shortest lake.

The channels that connect the Great Lakes are an important part of the system. This system greatly affects our way of life, as well as all aspects of the natural environment, from weather and climate, to habitat and wildlife. Yet for all their size and power, the Great Lakes are fragile. In the past, this fragile nature wasn't recognized, and the lakes were mistreated for economic gain, placing the ecosystem under tremendous stress from our activities.

Crias (Baby Alpacas)

Great White Pelican

Wolf

American Brook Lamprey

Deer mouse

Physical Factors

Light Availability:

Lakes are divided into zones based on amount of sunlight. The amount of light influences the life in the waters by affecting the plants, large and small, that use the light for growth through photosynthesis. If waters are too cloudy for the light to reach plants that normally live in shallow waters, then these 'submerged aquatic plants' will die along with the important habitat they provide.

Temperature of The Great Lake :

The water column of deep-water lakes is further divided into three zones called the surface water, bottom water, and the layer of water, where the temperature gradient is greater than that of the warmer layer above and the colder layer below. Temperature affects whether lakes freeze over in the winter or if they have cool water at the bottom to support fish in the hot summer.

Mixing occurs when the temperature of the lake becomes more uniform from top to bottom, usually in the spring and/or fall. The mixing replenishes oxygen to the bottom waters and releases nutrients and food to the top waters. Lake Erie mixes this way in both the spring and fall.

The Water quality:

Pollution of the Great Lakes occurs when pollutants enter a waterway directly. This could be from such causes as waste being dumped into a waterway. In the past, lakes and other waterways were used as a place to dump waste because it was thought that water could dilute anything, whereas more recent studies have shown this to be extremely incorrect. After several hundreds of years of constant dumping, many waterways have become contaminated with toxic chemicals and human waste^.

The salinity of the water of he Great Lake :

The salinity of the water averages about 12%, making it much saltier than the ocean. The water is so buoyant that people can easily float.

Quality of air :

Water moves through the hydrological cycle, it falls as rain or snow and then evaporates to the atmosphere from the land and surface water. Other substances, including toxic pollutants, follow this same path.Amospheric deposition is a significant source of certain toxic pollutants entering the Great Lakes. In fact, as much as 90 % of some toxic loadings to the Great Lakes are believed to be the result of airborne deposition.

pH of the environment :

The pH scale runs from 0 to 14. Pure, distilled water is neutral, with a pH of 7. The lower the number the more acidic the water. The higher the number the more alkaline. Most aquatic organisms require a pH near neutral, or 7. The Great Lakes have a limestone base, which helps buffer the impacts of acid precipitation and industrial or waste treatment plant discharges.

Mineral salts and nutrients:

It contains sufficient amount of mineral salts and nutrients it has a lot of algae and solid growing.

Classification of Living Organisms

Producers

The producer is in the first postion of every foodchain. They are capable of making their own food by using energy from the sun. This process is called photosynthesis. The examples of the producers are:

Curly-Leaf Pondweed (Potamogeton crispus)

Curly-leaf pondweed is an invasive aquatic perennial that is native to Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The leaves are reddish-green, oblong, and about 3 inches long, with distinct wavy edges that are finely toothed. The stem of the plant is flat, reddish-brown and grows from 1 to 3 feet long. The plant usually drops into the lake bottom by early July.

Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)

Eurasian watermilfoil is an attractive plant with feathery underwater foliage. It was once commonly sold as an aquarium plant. Eurasian watermilfoil, hereafter called milfoil, originates from Europe and Asia, but was introduced to North America many years ago and is now found over much of the United States. This plant was introduced to the eastern United States at least as long ago as the 1940s, but it may have arrived as early as the late 1800s. It is very apparent that milfoil has been spread from lake to lake on boat trailers.

Primary Consumers

Lake Herring (Cisco) / Forage Fish
Get Energy from: Primarily feeds on microscopic zooplankton; adults also eat aquatic insect larvae, adult mayflies and stoneflies, and other bottom-dwelling invertebrates
They are the food that sustains larger predators higher up in the ocean food chain. Their schooling behaviour and super abundance make them ideal food sources for large populations of top predator fish such as tuna, striped bass, cod, flounder, salmon, or swordfish, as well as whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, and seabirds. Without forage fish the ocean food web would collapse and no longer support large, diverse assemblages of top predator species.

Midge Larvae (Chironomids) / Macroinvertebrate
Get Energy from: Live on lake bottom and feed on dead plant and animal material that accumulated there

Chironomidae are a family of nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Many species superficially resemble mosquitoes but they lack the wing scales and elongate mouthparts of the Culicidae. This is a large group of insects with over 5000 described species and 700 species in North America alone.

Secondary Consumers

A seconday consumer is on the second postion of the food chain. It cosumes tha animals that only feeds on plants which are the producers. Secondary consumers often consumes meat and obtain substances from either killing or capturing. Some consumers even feed on dead animals.The examples are:

Asian Carp

Asian Carp have been found in the Illinois River, which connects the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan. Due to their large size and rapid rate of reproduction, these fish could pose a significant risk to the Great Lakes Ecosystem. Asian Carp are a significant threat to the Great Lakes because they are large, extremely prolific, and consume vast amounts of food. They can weigh up to 100 pounds, and can grow to a length of more than four feet. They are well-suited to the climate of the Great Lakes region.

Muskrat

Get Energy from: omnivorous wide variety of plants and animal foods, including: cattails, water lilies, pondweeds, switch grass, mussels, crayfish, frogs, snails, and fish
The muskrat is the only species in genus Ondatra, is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America, and introduced in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. The muskrat is found in wetlands and is a very successful animal over a wide range of climates and habitats. It plays an important role in nature and is a resource of food and fur for humans, as well as being an introduced species in much of its present range.

Tertiary Consumers

Tertairy consumers are at the top of the foodchains. They only feed on other carnivores. Examples of the terrairy consumers are:

Flying Eagle

Bald Eagle

The dramatic colouring, beauty in flight, and hunting proficiency of these distinctive birds make them instantly recognizable throughout North America.Bald Eagles were in dang

er of disappearing completely from the Great Lakes region. Some 50 pairs were said to nest on the shores of Lake Erie alone. By the late 1970s, eagle pairs nesting on Lake Erie’s shorelines produced no young. Three active pairs were noted on Lake Superior, but they did not reproduce.

Milksnake

Milksnake has the wider geographical range than most of the other species of snakes. It is usual y found around deciduous forest edges but they can also b e found on open woodland or rocky hillsides. These snakes are not afraid of humans but they are surprisingly secretive so therefore it is not easy to spot them.

Decomposers

When plants or animals die, they become food for decomposers such as worms and b

acteria. Decomposers jobs is to recycle dead plants or animals into chemical substances such as carbon dioxide which is realsed back into air, soil and water. The examples of decomposers are:

Bacteria (Pokaryote)

In the Great Lakes, bacteria are the decomposers and they are responsible for recycling nutrients back to the food web.

~Food Web~

Interrelationship in Ecosystem

Predator-prey relationship

The lake trout, a federal trust species, was historically the top native predator fish in the Great Lakes and the mainstay of the early commercial fishery. A combination of over-fishing and predation by the exotic sea lamprey along with other contributing factors caused extinction of lake trout in all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior where populations were greatly diminished and Lake Huron where an isolated, remnant population persisted. Managers have been deeply concerned about the lake trout and have instituted a variety of rehabilitation efforts.

Parasitism

The sea Lemprey and small fishes. They make holes in the sides of their victims and feed on blood and body fluids.Small fish may die immediately from the attack or will die from an infection from the large sucking wound.

Mutualism

Raccoon
Almost always live near water, they will also move into a muskrat house. Predators include coyote, fox and bobcats.

Duck
often builds nests in cattail; eggs and ducklings are an important food source especially for mink and raccoons.