Snowstorms that sweep across the Great Lakes can dump several feet of snow on the other side. A climate scientists explains why.
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Articles on Great Lakes
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Ballast water release from ocean vessels has been a major source of invasive species in the Great Lakes for over 60 years.
Wetlands can help limit the spread of the voracious round goby, an invasive species that has infiltrated the Great Lakes and has become widespread in the St. Lawrence River.
Zebra and quagga mussels entered the Great Lakes in large ships’ ballast water. Now, local boaters and anglers are spreading them into the southern and western US.
Climate change is causing the deep waters in parts of the St. Lawrence River to lose their oxygen, and it’s damaging the health of the ecosystem.
Rough surf and nearshore currents lead to about 50 drowning fatalities annually in the Great Lakes.
Cleaning up the Great Lakes was a big job when the US and Canada undertook it in 1972. Today it’s far more challenging.
The deal undermines every human being’s right to seek asylum and commitments enshrined in the Refugee Convention.
Lakes in the northern hemisphere are rapidly losing their ice cover due to rising greenhouse gas emissions. The only way to preserve lake ice is to limit GHG emissions and slow down climate change.
Shoreline communities are already faltering under the weight of billions of dollars in damages — and worrying that climate change will continue to make things even worse.
Some of the worst risks of earthquakes are in a zone running from the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River that includes major cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Québec City.
Some of the most powerful offshore wind is over water too deep for a standard wind turbine. Engineers found a way around the problem.
In Canada, watersheds are vast and often inaccessible, making it difficult to monitor the health of these ecosystems. A new tool helps communities collect data to assess the state of Canada’s rivers.
Working waterfronts are a key link between consumers and seafood, but are increasingly threatened by developers. Policies need to ensure that waterfronts remain accessible to seafood harvesters.
A networked array of sensors could warn drinking water utilities in real time of harmful algal blooms and prevent public health crises.
When sea lampreys gained a foothold in the Great Lakes in the 1950s, these trout-sucking predators upended the ecosystem.
Warmer waters, heavier storms and nutrient pollution are a triple threat to Great Lakes cities’ drinking water. The solution: Cutting nutrient releases and installing systems to filter runoff.
Climate change is making extreme weather events, both hot and cold, more frequent across the Great Lakes region. Weatherizing low-income residents’ homes is an important way to prepare.
Releasing balloons at weddings and other celebrations is festive, until they break into pieces and become plastic pollution. A citizen science project is spotlighting the problem.
The Great Lakes contain reservoirs of legacy contaminants, mostly in their sediments, that are vulnerable to resuspension.
Top contributors
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Executive Director and Professor, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor
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Assistant Professor of Architecture, University at Buffalo
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Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Western Michigan University
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Visiting Scholar, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor
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Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
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Professor Emeritus of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
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Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
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Associate Director, Climate System Research Center, UMass Amherst
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André Guichaoua is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professeur des universités, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
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Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Assistant Professor of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University
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Chancellor's Professor of Earth Sciences and Executive Director, Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, Indiana University
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Associate Professor and York University Research Chair in Global Change Biology, York University, Canada
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PhD Student, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
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Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UMass Amherst
