Great Lakes Invasive Species

From Great Lakes Wiki

Ecology

Invasive Species

An invasive species is an alien species whose introduction is likely to do harm or does harm to the native ecosystem, the local economy, or commerce, and also human health. Invasive species pose the greatest threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem today. The most significant harms being caused are from: Sea Lamprey, Round Goby, Zebra Mussels, Quagga mussel,and Eurasian ruffe. Most experts attribute the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway as the major contributor to invasive species in the Great Lakes. An invasive species that has the potential to greatly harm and that is threatening to enter The Great Lakes is the Asian Carp.

An example of what can happen when an invasive species completly takes over can be illustrated by taking a look at a phenomenon in Lake Erie. Recently scientists have found "dead zones" in Lake Erie where nothing can survive. These areas are growing each year.

The entire food web of the Great Lakes is being damaged by invasive species. As more and more of these invaders arrive, the entire commercial fishing industry is at risk to collapse entirely.

Since the 1800's, there has been 160 new exotic species introduced to the Great Lakes irreversibly altering the regions ecosystem. About 139 of these species comes from South Eastern Europe and about 70 percent has been introduced by the release of ballast water from ships traversing the lakes.

Scientists have estimated that about 10 percent of the exotics introduced have caused significant ecological and economic damage. They have also determined that invasive species can affect multiple ecological levels and are uncovering some disturbing trends. Invasives according to experts are having severe negative consequences to the base of the food web, are assaulting the ecosystem on multiple fronts, are altering the ecology to promote more invasive species to rapidly take hold, and they are increasing the pressures on the sportfish and commercial fishing species and changing the overall distribution of fish in the Great Lakes.

Video Clip
Invasive species
01:29 Interview with Bill Craig, talking about Japanese Knotweed along the Rouge River, which is one of the Areas of Concern

Other Possible Topics

Invasive Species Control, Invasive Species Introduction

List of Invasive Species

Note: You need to click the text, not the picture. Clicking the picture just takes you to a bigger picture.

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amphipod	alewife </td>	aquatic moth	aquatic weevil	Asian clama
banded mystery snail	barnyard grass	bitter dock	bittersweet nightshade	black alder
black-grass rush	blueback herring	bluespotted sunfish	bristly lady's thumb	brown alga
brown trout	bryozoan	bur reed	calanoid copepod	chinook salmon
cladoceran	cocco-lithophoroid	coho salmon	common carp	crack willow
creeping whorled mint	creeping yellow cress	curlyleaf pondweed	cyclopoid copepod	diatom
digenean fluke	Eurasian ruffe	Eurasian water milfoil	European Brooklime	European ear snail
European fingernail snail	European frogbit	European valve snail	European water clover	European water horehound
fanwort	faucet snail	field sow thistle	fish-hook waterflea	flagellate
flattened rush	flatworm	flowering rush	fourspine stickleback	freshwater jellyfish
furunculosis	garden loostrife	ghost shiner	giant chickweed	glossy buckthorn
goldfish	great hairy willow herb	greater European pea clam	green alga	harpacticoid copepod
henslow's pea clam	humpback pea clam	hydroid	indian balsam	kokanee
lady's thumb	margined madtom	marsh thistle	japanese knotweed	minor naiad
mixosporidian	moneywort	monogenetic fluke	New Zealand mud snail	mussel
narrow leaved cattail	oak leaved goose foot	oligochaete	orange-spotted sunfish	Oriental mystery snail
Oriental weatherfish	parasitic copepod	peppermint	pink salmon	poison hemlock
purple loosestrife	purple willow	Quagga mussel	rainbow smelt	rainbow trout
red alga	redear sunfish	redtop	reed sweet-grass	rough-stalked meadow grass
round goby	rudd	rush	salmonid whirling disease	salt-marsh fleabane
sea lamprey	seaside goldenrod	sedge	small flowered hairy willow herb	smooth field sow thistle
snail	spearmint	spiny naiad	spiny water flea	suckermouth minnow
suctorian	swamp sedge	true forgot-me-not	tubenose goby	water chestnut
water cress	waterflea	water foxtail	weeping alkali grass	western mosquitofishtd>
western water horehound	white perch	white willow	yard dock	yellow flag
yellow floating heart	zebra mussel	garlic mustard*	Asian carp*	cormorant
phragmites*

Species marked with a * are not on the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory's list of Invasive Species

Ecological Concerns

Invasive Species

Native Species