Methods using extensive field data and three-season Landsat TM and PALSAR imagery were developed to map wetland type and identify potential wetland stressors (i.e., adjacent land use) for the United States and Canadian Laurentian coastal Great Lakes. The mapped area included the coastline to 10 km inland to capture the region hydrologically connected to the Great Lakes. Maps were developed in cooperation with the overarching Great Lakes Consortium plan to provide a comprehensive regional baseline map suitable for coastal wetland assessment and management by agencies at the local, tribal, state, and federal levels. The goal was to provide not only land use and land cover (LULC) baseline data at moderate spatial resolution (20–30 m), but a repeatable methodology to monitor change into the future. The prime focus was on mapping wetland ecosystem types, such as emergent wetland and forested wetland, as well as to delineate wetland monocultures (Typha, Phragmites, Schoenoplectus) and differentiate peatlands (fens and bogs) from other wetland types. The overall accuracy for the coastal Great Lakes map of all five lake basins was 94%, with a range of 86% to 96% by individual lake basin (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior).

Road networks threaten biodiversity and particularly herpetofauna, including common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), which have an especially slow life history that prevents rapid r...

Factors controlling the release of bioavailable soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) from sediments in very shallow lakes are not fully understood. Our approach involved relatively simple measurements of four factors affecting the calculation of internal phosphorus load: the number of sampling sites, sediment freezing, incubation temperature and oxic state in Cootes Paradise Marsh, now a very shallow (Z = 70 cm) eutrophic degraded urban lake in Ontario, Canada. Our results indicate that all of these factors need to be considered when attempting to estimate the internal phosphorus load of a shallow system. The total internal load of phosphorus in Cootes Paradise Marsh was 34% of the total loading (both internal and external), with diffusion from the sediment accounting for 23% of all phosphorus inputs. Large carp are now excluded from the lake and were estimated by difference to have contributed 23% to summer internal loading.