Threat to Life

Threat to Life

Water Contamination is a chemical, physical, and biological change to a waterway due to humans activity. Water Contamination is a serious threat to the Great Lakes.The great lakes have been affected by sewage disposal, toxic contamination through heavy metals and pesticides, runoff from agriculture and urbanization, and air pollution (Teach pg. 1).  Old contaminates are being replaced with new ones. The three ways the water gets contaminated is point source pollution, nonpoint source pollution, and atmospheric pollution (Teach pg.1).

• Point source pollution is when pollutants enters a waterway and comes into a river (Teach pg.1).
• Nonpoint source pollution is when pollution comes from different sources (Teach pg.1).
• Atmospheric pollution is when the water is going through the hydrologic cycle (Teach pg.1).

Water contamination affect the organisms living inside and outside the lakes, and health of human. Fish start having deformities, and humans can becoming sick and even get diseases.

Invasive Species

Since 1800 there are about 25 non-native species of fish that are in the great lakes. The invasive species effects people’s food, water and the fish’s ecosystem. Some of the invasive animal species include round goby, sea lamprey, Eurasian ruffe, and alewife (Invasive Species pg.1).



http://gallery.nanfa.org/d/23723-3/Neogobius+melanostomus++Round+Goby.jpg



http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/280000-52524-38.jpg

http://www.clr.pdx.edu/images/EurasianRuffe1.jpg

http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/cek7/nyfish/Clupeidae/alewife.jpg

Some of the Invasive plants are common reed, reed canary grass, purple loosestrife, curly pondweed, Eurasian milfoil, and frogbit (Invasive Species pg.1).

http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/img/phau1-growing.jpg

http://hort.uwex.edu/sites/default/files/P1000729_0.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/LythrumSalicariaBig.jpg/220px-LythrumSalicariaBig.jpg

http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/images/potcri/potcri_frank6a.gif

http://saveblacklake.org/system/assets/general/milfoil-06.jpeg

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/fish-pictures/amazon-frogbit-1267315428-800.jpg

Preservation of the Dunes

The preservation of the dunes started in 1916. The association was built in order t o establish a national park along the Lake Michigan shoreline ( Schoon pg.214).  The plan was to preserve an 8-mile strethch of the beach ( Schoon pg. 214). Later U.S. Steel donated $250,000. In the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was established in 1966 and is approximately 15,000 sq.ft. ( Schoon pg. 216). Later in the park was found 1,445 different plants, and without the association these plants would never be preserved. 

Work Cited

"Invasive Species." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 13 May 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. <http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/invasive/>.

 Schoon, Kenneth J. Calumet Beginnings: Ancient Shorelines and Settlements at the South End of Lake Michigan. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2003. Print.

TEACH: Water Pollution in the Great Lakes." TEACH: Water Pollution in the Great Lakes. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/pollution/water/water1.html>.