The Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are an important part of American and Canadian history Connected to the United States in New York , Pennsylvania , Ohio , Indiana Illinois , Wisconsin , and Minnesota and Canada the five Great Lakes HYPERLINK "http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /lakesuperior /index .html " Superior HYPERLINK "http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /michigan .html " Michigan HYPERLINK "http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /huron .html " Huron , HYPERLINK "http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /erie .html " Erie and HYPERLINK "http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /ontario .html " Ontario , span over an area larger than 750 miles . Home to more than 1 /10th

of the population of the United States and more that 1 /4th of the population of Canada the Great Lakes have provides a long history of sustainability to the surrounding areas

The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh , surface water on earth , containing roughly 18 percent of the world supply . Although the Great Lakes are a treasure to these great nations they are also susceptible to a wide range of problems including environmental discrepancies and unpredictable weather patterns ( HYPERLINK "http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /atlas /glat-ch1 .html http /www .epa .gov /glnpo /atlas /glat-ch1 .html . In recent years the amount of natural resources , such as fresh water fish have been depleting because of industrial pollution as well as exotic plant and fish life entering the region and throwing off the ecosystem . Exploring the physical aspects of the Great Lakes helps us to better understand the water life , the physical surroundings of each particular lake , and how that affects human and human culture in the Great Lakes area

The plant and animal life of the Great Lakes has been affected on a great scale over the last thirty years . The waters of the Great Lakes support an array of life that has evolved over thousands of years These freshwater seas , the Great Lakes , have been exploited and have received the fallout of modern Industry and agriculture . They have been invaded by exotic species . As a result , extinctions of fresh water life are taking place rapidly (Spring ,

. 13 . Although there have been many efforts to clean up the Great Lakes the reality lies in the fact that zebra mussels , and exotic Russian mussel which depletes nutrients with at an excruciatingly fast past , have interrupted the food chain system that had been in place at the lakes for thousands of years . In just ten years , 1993-2003 , the zebra mussels caused more that three billion dollars worth of damage to the lakes . They actually decreased the population of Diporeia , a crustacean that live in the mud of fresh water lakes and are eaten by white fish , chub and sculpin , by 99 . And this is only the beginning as the mussels are one of about 180 foreign species of all kinds that have invaded the Great Lakes , largely by hitching a ride on overseas shipping vessels (Schulte

The change in weather , most likely contributed to the fast pace of global warming , has caused damage to the lakes is...