Great Lakes Water Life

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Great Lakes Water Life

• Dr. Rochelle Sturtevant
• NOAA
• Great Lakes Sea Grant Network
• Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
• October 20, 2008

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EcosystemThe community of living organisms and
their non-living environmentMeet some of the
players
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the non-living parts

• Water
• Minerals/nutrients
• Sunlight

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Macrophytes (water plants)
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A quick look at some macrophytes
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Algae
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Diatoms
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Green Algae
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Blue-Green Algae
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Higher levels of the food web all get their
energy by eating plants (herbivores) or each
other (carnivores) or dead stuff (detritivores)
Lets start with the largest and work our way down
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Lake Sturgeon(to 6 foot)
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Paddlefish(to 4 and a half foot)
EXTIRPATED FROM GREAT LAKES!!
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Muskellunge(Record gt5 foot)
Northern Pike (to 4 foot)
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Coho salmon(to 3 and 1/2 foot)
Sockeye salmon(to 18 inches)
Exotic Salmon
Pink salmon (to 4 foot)
Steelhead trout (to 3 foot)
Chinook salmon(to 3 and a half foot)
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Lake trout(to 2 and a half foot)
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Flathead catfish (to 3 foot)
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Sea lamprey (to 3 foot)INVASIVE!!
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Native lamprey(to 12 inches)
Northern brook
Chestnut
Silver
American Brook
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Lake Whitefish(to 2 foot)
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American eel (females to 5 foot) (males to 1 and
a half foot)
Bowfin (to 3 foot)
Burbot (to 2 and a half foot)
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Walleye(to 2 foot record 33 inches)
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White crappie (to 16 inches)
Smallmouth bass (to 2 foot)
Largemouth bass (to 2 foot)
Black crappie (to 16 inches)
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Suckers(most to 2 foot)
Bigmouth buffalo
Greater redhorse
Quillback
Northern hogsucker
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Mudpuppy
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Lets Magnify! (x5)
5 foot gt 1 foot
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Alewive( 10 inches)
EXOTIC!
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Extinct!
(10 inches)
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Yellow perch(to 1 foot)
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Round goby
Exotic!
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Slimy sculpin (to 4 inches)
Deepwater sculpin (to 6 inches)
Brook stickleback (to 3 inches)
Troutperch (to 5 inches)
Threespine stickleback (to 4 inches)
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Darters(most to 3 inches)
Logperch
Iowa darter
Greenside darter
Orange-throat darter
Rainbow darter
Channel darter
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Minnows
Brassy minnow
Redside dace
Pirate perch
Spottail shiner
Emerald shiner
Common shiner
Bullhead minnow
Northern redbelly dace
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Northern crayfish
Rusty crayfish
Exotic!
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Bryozoans
Pectinella magnifica can exceed 2 feet in
diameter, though most bryozoans are under 1 foot
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Typically a few inches in size, freshwater sponge
colonies can reach more than 1 foot
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Native Unionid Clams
Rainbow shell
Fawnsfoot
Round pigtoe
Mapleleaf
Black sandshell
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Lets Magnify! (x5)
1 foot gt 2 inches
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Zebra mussel(1 and a half inches)
Exotic!!
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Quagga mussel(1 and a half inches)
Exotic!!
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Asian Clam(to 2 inches)
Exotic!!
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Fingernail clamsto 1 inch
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Chinese Mystery Snail(Exotic)
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Native Snails
Physids
Brown mystery snail
Sharphorn snail
Creeping freshwater limpet
Storm hydrolabe
3-ridge valve snail
Buffalo pebblesnail
Big-eared radix
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Malacostrans (shrimp and scuds)
Bloody-red shrimp
Exotic!
Hyalella
Gammarus
Diporeia
Echinogammarus
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Bryozoans
Lophodella carteri
closeup
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Mayflies
Adult
Nymph
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Dragonflies and Damselflies
Adult
More than 230 species in the Great Lakes region
Nymphs
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Stoneflies
Adult
Nymph
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Caddisflies
Adult
Larvae
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Alderflies and spongilliflies
Adult
Larvae
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Flies, midges and mosquitos
Adult
Larvae
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Beetles
Adult
Larvae
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Waterbugs
Adult water boatman
Water strider nymphs
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Dagger and snout moths
Larvae in a reed stem
Adult
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Braconid wasps
Adult
Larvae feeding on a caterpillar
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Polychaete
Leech
Oligochaete
Roundworm
Ribbon worm
Horsehair worm
Flatworm
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Lets magnify! (x5)
2 inches gt0.4 inches (1 centimeter)
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Leptodora
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Spiny waterflea
Exotic!
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Fishhook waterflea
Exotic!
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Large Waterfleas
Exotic!
Daphnia lumholtzi
Daphnia galeata
Simocephalus serrulatus
Daphnia pulex
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(No Transcript)
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Lets magnify! (x5)
1 centimeter gt 2 mm
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Copepods (Oarsmen)
Nauplii Juvenile
Calanoid Grazers
Cyclopoid Predators
Harpacticoid Benthic
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Resting Egg and Juvenile Waterflea
Resting eggs can survive decades, even centuries
until conditions are right for hatching!
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Small waterfleas
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Tardigrades (waterbears)
Tardigrades can spread a 18 month lifespan (not
counting hibernation) over 60 years!
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Lets magnify! (x5)
2 mmgt0.4mm (400 microns)
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Rotifers
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Soft-bodied rotifers
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Gastrotrichs
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Lets magnify! (x5)
400 microns gt 80 microns
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Ciliates
Codonella
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Vorticella
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Stylonichia
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Strombilidium The fastest animal on earth?
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Heliozoa (sun animals)
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Amoeba
Can you see the diatoms it has eaten?
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Difflugia
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Testate amoeba (peeking out of its shell)
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Flagellates
Salpingoeca sp. attached to a diatom
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ProtozoaPhotosynthetic Flagellates
Lepocinclis
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Algae, Nanoplankton, Picoplankton, Bacteria and
Viruses
Bacteria 1 microns
Aphanizomenon, a blue-green algae
Aphanocapsa
Spring viremia of carp virus
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Great Lakes Waterlife

• The Great Lakes are home to
• More than 190 species of fish
• More than 100 species of clams snails
• More than 200 genera of insects
• More than 60 genera of worms
• About 100 species of macrozooplankton
• About 275 species of rotifers
• More than 350 genera of algae

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Learn More

• http//www.glerl.noaa.gov/seagrant/GLWL/GLWLife.ht
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