scholarly journals Acoustic monitoring of migratory birds over western Lake Erie: avian responses to barriers and the importance of islands

2014 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire E. Sanders ◽  
Daniel J. Mennill
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Acoustic Monitoring ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Western Lake

Understanding the flight patterns of migrating birds is critical for informing conservation actions and management decisions. We studied the geographic and temporal distribution of birds migrating through the southern Great Lakes using nocturnal acoustic monitoring data and banding records from sites on Pelee Island in Lake Erie and on the mainland along the north shore of Lake Erie. Given that Lake Erie may represent an ecological barrier to migratory birds, we predicted that mainland and island sites would show different patterns in both the number of passage migrants and the timing of their migration. Analysis of over 60,000 flight calls from 6200 h of recordings revealed significantly more migrants over the island than the mainland in both spring and fall 2012. The acoustic data provide evidence that none of the species or species groups examined avoided crossing the lake. Birds were detected significantly earlier on Pelee Island than on the north shore of Lake Erie in spring, although they were not detected earlier on the mainland in fall. These results suggest that Lake Erie is not a major barrier to migration. The large number of birds detected over the island suggest that birds may concentrate their flight over islands in the middle of the lake, although recordings of migrants over open water will be required to support this suggestion. Our results show that Pelee Island is an important part of the migratory route of North American birds and provide valuable information on the movement of nocturnal migrants over the Great Lakes.

scholarly journals Mass mortality of Northern Map Turtles (Graptemys geographica)

2015 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Catrysse ◽  
Emily Slavik ◽  
Jonathan Choquette ◽  
Ashley E. Leifso ◽  
Christina M. Davy
Keyword(s):  
Lake Erie ◽  
Mass Mortality ◽  
Species At Risk ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Map Turtles ◽  
Graptemys Geographica

We report a mass mortality of Northern Map Turtles (Graptemys geographica [LeSueur, 1817]) on the north shore of Lake Erie, Ontario, Canada. Thirty-five dead adult females were recovered from a nesting area over a period of four weeks. Predation and boat strikes were both excluded as potential cause of death, but the actual cause could not be determined because of the poor condition of the carcasses. Other possible explanations for the mortality include poisoning, drowning, and infection with an unidentified pathogen. Mass mortality in long-lived species, such as turtles, can have long-term effects on population growth and is a cause for concern in a species at risk.

‘Scows, and barges, or other vessels of box model’: Comparative capital investment in the sailing scows of the Great Lakes of North America and in New Zealand

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Jay C. Martin
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
North America ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
American Frontier ◽  
International Context ◽  
The North ◽  
Hull Design

Boxy and with ‘unseaworthy form’, the sailing scow was not the most aesthetically pleasing of watercraft. Yet the durable hull design based upon European predecessors found a new home in North America where it proliferated on the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific and Great Lakes coasts because of its practicality for largely unimproved waterways. Scows were widely used on the Great Lakes in the nineteenth century, moving beyond shallow waters and gaining a reputation for reliability in long-distance trade. Late in the century, the technology arrived in New Zealand, where it prospered in a niche market that combined open water voyages and shallow river, port, or beach loading and unloading. The Great Lakes scows presented an alternative for entry into ship ownership on the North American frontier. The development of the New Zealand scow confirmed these findings comparatively in an international context during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Acentropus niveus (Oliv.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) on the north shore of Lake Erie with a consideration of its distribution in North America

1950 ◽  
Vol 82 (12) ◽  
pp. 250-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. Judd
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Green Alga ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Filamentous Green Alga ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Lepidoptera Pyralidae ◽  
Shallow Bay ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Waves

On July 12, 1950 a collection of adults of the moth Acentropus niveus (Oliv.) was made on the north shore of Lake Erie near the village of South Cayuga, Ontario (Maps A, B-3). At the southern limits of the townships of Dunn and South Cayuga (Haldimand County) a shallow bay extends for a distance of about two miles along the shore of the lake (Map A). Along this bay is a sandy or gravelly beach ten to twenty yards wide backed by a cliff of clay that rises abruptly above the beach. On the day the collections were made the sky was clear and a brisk southerly breeze was causing waves to wash on the beach. The action of the waves had deposited debris, consisting largely of tangled masses of a filamentous green alga and exuviae of the mayfly Hexagenia occulta, in a windrow six inches to two feet wide along the shore. The moths ere found in this debris, most of them lying dead and with bedraggled wings, while some lay on their backs with wings stuck to the damp surface and with legs kicking and a few were crawling about on the debris.

scholarly journals Detoured flight direction responses along the southwest coast of Lake Erie by night-migrating birds

The Auk ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David V Gesicki ◽  
Erica L Cech ◽  
Verner P Bingman
Keyword(s):  
Lake Erie ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Western Basin ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Infrared Observations ◽  
The North ◽  
Flight Direction ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Topographical Feature ◽  
Migrating Birds

Abstract Migratory birds encounter the Great Lakes while moving through eastern North America toward breeding grounds to the North, which offers a good opportunity to study variation in migratory behavior as birds face a potentially influencing topographical feature. Using passive infrared technology, we documented the direction of relatively low-flying, nocturnal, mostly passerine migration in spring along the southern coast of Lake Erie’s western basin. We examined the extent to which spring migrants flew across Lake Erie as a continuation of the inland, northeasterly broad front migratory direction, as determined by weather radar and infrared observations, or displayed a tendency to deviate to more closely follow the direction of the coastline. We found that an estimated 62% of all low-flying migrants deviated their flight directions toward the coast of Lake Erie at 2 coastal sites, Cedar Point and Ottawa, which were characterized by northwest–southeast oriented coastlines. Migrants at a third coastal location, Maumee Bay, which has a more east–west oriented coastline, did not display similarly deviated flight directions. We found that even when winds were energetically favorable for a lake crossing, many migrants still routinely displayed deviated flight directions that approached paralleling the coastline. Further, the mean flight direction at one site, Ottawa, shifted more in the direction of the coastline as the night progressed, suggesting that time of night could influence the shift to a more coastal flight direction. The data indicate that the western basin of Lake Erie acts as a salient topographical feature influencing the flight directions of nocturnal migrants. The data further suggest that birds are making active decisions while in flight, based on current environmental and physiological conditions, about whether to continue to cross Lake Erie or take a coastal detour.

scholarly journals Late-summer phytoplankton in western Lake Erie (Laurentian Great Lakes): bloom distributions, toxicity, and environmental influences

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 915-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
David F. Millie ◽  
Gary L. Fahnenstiel ◽  
Julianne Dyble Bressie ◽  
Ryan J. Pigg ◽  
Richard R. Rediske ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Laurentian Great Lakes ◽  
Western Lake ◽  
Western Lake Erie

Identification of the Great Lakes Quagga Mussel as Dreissena bugensis from the Dnieper River, Ukraine, on the Basis of Allozyme Variation

1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (7) ◽  
pp. 1485-1489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian P. Spidle ◽  
J. Ellen Marsden ◽  
Bernie May
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Allozyme Variation ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Quagga Mussel ◽  
Allozyme Data ◽  
Dreissena Bugensis ◽  
The North ◽  
Deep Waters

The discovery of a second dreissenid species, the quagga mussel, in the Great Lakes in 1991 prompted a search for its identity. We have identified the North American quagga mussel as Dreissena bugensis Andrusov on the basis of allozyme data and morphological characters. Further, a phenotypically distinct form of the quagga mussel found in Lakes Erie and Ontario also matches the electrophoretic profiles of the typical Lake Ontario quagga and European D. bugensis. We confirm that the white "profunda" mussel found in the deep waters of Lake Erie is a phenotype of the quagga mussel, and we conclude that the quagga mussel is D. bugensis which has been introduced from the Black Sea drainage of Ukraine.

Walleye (Stizostedion vitreum vitreum) Fluctuations in the Great Lakes and Possible Causes, 1800–1975

1977 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 1878-1889 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Schneider ◽  
J. H. Leach
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Lake Superior ◽  
Lake Huron ◽  
Stizostedion Vitreum ◽  
Spawning Habitat ◽  
Green Bay ◽  
Western Lake ◽  
Foreign Species ◽  
Western Lake Erie

Changes in walleye (Stizostedion vitreum vitreum) stocks in the Great Lakes from 1800 to 1975 were linked to proliferation of foreign species of fish and culturally induced sources of stress — exploitation, nutrient loading, alteration of spawning habitat, and toxic materials. During the 1800s, three small spawning stocks (and probably many others) were damaged or destroyed because of either overfishing or elimination of spawning habitat through logging, pollution, or damming.During 1900–40, stocks in the Michigan waters of Lake Superior, southern Green Bay, the Thunder Bay River of Lake Huron, the North Channel of Lake Huron, and the New York waters of Lake Ontario declined gradually. Pollution, in general, and degradation of spawning habitat, in particular, probably caused three of the declines and overexploitation was suspected in two instances. In addition, the decline of three of these stocks occurred when rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) were increasing.During 1940–75, stocks in seven areas declined abruptly: Saginaw Bay (1944), northern Green Bay (1953), Muskegon River (mid-1950s), western Lake Erie (1955), Nipigon Bay (late 1950s), Bay of Quinte (1960), and Black Bay (mid-1960s). The decline of each stock was associated with a series of weak year-classes. The stocks were exposed to various sources of stress, including overexploitation, pollution, and interaction with foreign species, which, if not important in the decline, may be suppressing recovery. Only the western Lake Erie stock recovered, in part due to a reduction in exploitation and, possibly, because of the relatively low density of smelt and alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) in the nursery areas.Relatively stable stocks persisted in five areas: Wisconsin waters of Lake Superior, Lake St. Clair — southern Lake Huron, eastern Lake Erie, northern Lake Huron, and parts of Georgian Bay. Pollution problems were relatively minor in these areas and exploitation was light during recent decades. Apparently these stocks were more capable of withstanding the additional stresses exerted by alien species. Key words: population fluctuations, Percidae, Stizostedion, Great Lakes walleye, history of fisheries, summary of stresses, harvests, management implications

Comparative Summer Limnology of Inner Long Point Bay, Lake Erie, and its Major Tributary

1966 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Berst ◽  
H. R. McCrimmon
Keyword(s):  
Lake Erie ◽  
Total Dissolved Solids ◽  
Adjacent Area ◽  
Lower Section ◽  
Dissolved Solids ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Major Tributary ◽  
Action Levels

Long Point Bay, on the north shore of Lake Erie, is 28.2 square miles (7278 hectares) in area, with a maximum depth of approximately 10 ft (3.05 m). Big Creek, the major tributary, drains a watershed of 317 square miles (81,818 hectares), and discharges 4700 million cubic feet (127,000 million liters) of water into the Bay annually. Summer water temperatures in the Creek and the Bay were positively correlated with air temperatures in 1962. The water in the Bay was subject to considerable seiche action. Levels of nutrients and suspended materials were characteristically higher in the Creek than in the Bay. Gross reductions in levels of turbidity, total dissolved solids, nitrates, and phosphates occurred in the lower section of Big Creek and the adjacent area of the Bay. For example, phosphate levels of bottom samples were inversely correlated with those of water samples in lower Big Creek and its estuary. The path of Big Creek discharge through the Bay to Lake Erie was defined by an analysis of total dissolved solids and soil phosphate data.

Variation in Lake Water Temperature in the Nanticoke Region of Long Point Bay, Lake Erie, during the Open-Water Season

1990 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1427-1433 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. G. Dunstall ◽  
D. W. Lawler ◽  
R. Farooqui ◽  
G. T. Haymes
Keyword(s):  
Water Temperature ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Open Water ◽  
The North ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Recovery Times ◽  
Warming Cycle

Lake water temperature on the north shore of Long Point Bay near Nanticoke (Lake Erie) over the years 1971–83 varied considerably during the lake warming cycle. Upwellings, resulting in temperature drops of 5–10°C over a 2–3 d period, were common from mid-May to mid-August. Warmer surface waters returned within 6 d (usually 3 d) following summer upwellings. In spring, the recovery times were variable but typically lasted longer, up to 25 d. Temperature fluctuations that exceeded 5°C but lasted less than 48 h were also frequent during the lake warming cycle. The progressive deepening of the epilimnion to the 12-m depth of Long Point Bay and the associated increase in the heat content of the Bay resulted in a stable temperature regime by mid-August. Diurnal heating and cooling of surface waters, by as much as 4°C, was apparent under calm conditions. Mean April–November temperatures varied by more than 2°C, reflecting annual variation in atmospheric warming.

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