Protecting+Lake+Ontario

John Rego CCT205H5 Feb,05 2009 =  =

Protecting Lake Ontario 
= =   Since the first Europeans landed in the Great Lakes basin, people have been using the water from Lake Ontario to sustain themselves. The Great Lakes were remnants of the last Great Ices Age. They were carved by the more than one kilometer thick ice sheet that covered most of the continent of North America. As the earth warmed the ice receded and what we were left with is called The Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is the most easterly and of the smallest of the Great Lakes measuring only 19,099 km2 (Lake Ontario). The Lake is seen as being a very important part of the area that even the Province of Ontario is named after the Lake (Mithun, 312). Over the hundreds of years that people have inhabited the area, people have never stopped to examine what affect we are having on the Lake. Today unfortunately there are many challenges facing not only the lake itself but the entire ecosystem it supports. The propose of this assignment is to show the major problems facing the Lake as well as what is being done and not being done in relation to solving this problem. The major problems facing Lake Ontario is invasive species, and climate change.

Invasive Species
[|Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic Sciences]  Zebra mussels       (  // Dreissena polymorpha //  ) are From the Caspian Sea region in Central Asia. They are the size of a small finger and are believed to have been brought here in the ballast tanks of intercontinental freight ships. Ships use ballast as a way to balance the freight during transit. The ship then subsequently releases their ballast when the freight is removed. This is how the Zebra mussels are believed to have be brought to the great lakes when the first one was discovered in 1988 near Detroit    (  About Our Great Lakes).

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Rusty Crayfish (Orconectes rusticus) are a special breed of crayfish that originally found in the rivers of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee region. Their most dangerous because they do not have the same predators in lake Ontario that they have in the Midwest. Rusty crayfish reduce lake vegetation, and kill the ecosystem by destroying the food cycle because native fish starve to death  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">  (  About Our Great Lakes).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus) is a beautiful underwater plant that was introduced form Europe and Asia. It was originally introduced as an ornament for decoration. It can grow in waters up to 10 feet deep but only grows in shallow areas. “Its dense stands crowd out native species like bulrush. The emergent form has pink, umbellate-shaped flowers, and is three feet tall with triangular-shaped stems” ( Flowering Rush in the Great Lakes Region)

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Climate Change = =<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> media type="youtube" key="zyTm_0D0uS8" height="193" width="240" <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Climate Change is another major issue that must be dealt with to save Lake Ontario. Even thought climate change is a global phenomena it can have very local impacts. Firstly scientist predict that over the next hundred years or so the Great Lakes Region will receive additional rainfall but water levels will dramatically fall. Professor <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Peter Sousounis  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> from  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> the  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">University of Michigan claims in the report  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">__ THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ON THE GREAT LAKES REGION __ that even thought there will be more snow and rainfall the temperature will be on average a full 2 degrees warmer and that will increases evaporation. The most dramatic time will be during the winter with lakes such as Ontario not freezing over it will maintain a year round evaporation cycle that is dangerous for the sustainability of the lakes in the long term(Sousounis, 2000). This increased evaporation cycle will lead to higher toxicity levels in the lakes because during the evaporation cycle only pure H2O can be released form the lake. There is no indication that Lake Ontario will dry up like the [|Aral Sea] however the changing chemical composition of the lake could end up destroying the entire ecosystem that relies on it.

Lake Ontario as we know it has been going thought serious changes ever since the first European settlers came to settle here. After hundreds of years of constantly abusing our natural resources we have been given a choice. We could either change our ways or we could turn a blind eye to the fact that our entire ecosystem is changing. Whether it is the invasive species threatening our great resources or whether our own excessive use of CO2 emissions is changing the world, things in Lake Ontario are changing. So we as a generation can either choose to turn away from the problem or meet it head on. i personally choose the latter because no other issue will effect us during our lifetimes than this one in front of us today.

Bibliography  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> "About Our Great Lakes -Threats- NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> (GLERL)." __NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL)__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> __ Homepage __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">. 01 Feb. 2009 <http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pr/ourlakes/threats.html>. "Flowering Rush in the Great Lakes Region." __Great Lakes__ __Information Network__. 01 Feb. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 2009 <http://www.great-lakes.net/envt/flora-fauna/invasive/rush.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> " LAKE ONTARIO ." __Welcome to ILEC Home Page!__ 01 Feb. 2009  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/nam/nam-07.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Mithun, Marianne. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Cambridge <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> University Press: 2000. Sousounis, Peter. "Impacts of Climate Change in the Great Lakes." __Global__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> __ Warming: Early Warning Signs __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">. 2000. 03 Feb. 2009 <http://www.climatehotmap.org/impacts/greatlakes.html>.

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