Great Lakes Water Life

Dr. Rochelle Sturtevant

NOAA

Great Lakes Sea Grant Network

Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

October 20, 2008

Ecosystem:

The community of living organisms and their non-living environment

Meet some of the players…

…the non-living parts

•Water

•Minerals/nutrients

•Sunlight

•Water

•Minerals/nutrients

•Sunlight

Macrophytes (water plants)

A quick look at some macrophytes

Algae

Diatoms

Green Algae

Blue-Green Algae

Higher levels of the food web all get their energy by eating plants (herbivores) or each other (carnivores) or dead stuff (detritivores)

Let’s start with the largest and work our

way down

Lake Sturgeon(to 6 foot)

Paddlefish(to 4 and a half foot)

EXTIRPATED FROM GREAT LAKES!!

Muskellunge(Record >5 foot)

Northern Pike(to 4 foot)

Exotic Salmon

Chinook salmon(to 3 and a half foot)

Steelhead trout (to 3 foot)

Sockeye salmon(to 18 inches)

Pink salmon (to 4 foot)

Coho salmon(to 3 and 1/2 foot)

Lake trout(to 2 and a half foot)

Flathead catfish (to 3 foot)

Sea lamprey (to 3 foot)

INVASIVE!!

Native lamprey(to 12 inches)

American Brook

ChestnutNorthern brook

Silver

Lake Whitefish(to 2 foot)

Burbot (to 2 and a half foot)

Bowfin (to 3 foot)

American eel(females to 5 foot)

(males to 1 and a half foot)

Walleye(to 2 foot … record 33 inches)

Black crappie(to 16 inches)

Largemouth bass(to 2 foot)

Smallmouth bass(to 2 foot)

White crappie(to 16 inches)

Suckers(most to 2 foot)

Bigmouth buffalo

Greater redhorse

Northern hogsucker

Quillback

Mudpuppy

Let’s Magnify! (x5)

5 foot => 1 foot

Alewive(~ 10 inches)

EXOTIC!

(10 inches)

Extinct!

Yellow perch(to 1 foot)

Round goby

Exotic!

Brook stickleback(to 3 inches)

Threespine stickleback(to 4 inches)

Deepwater sculpin(to 6 inches)

Slimy sculpin(to 4 inches)

Troutperch(to 5 inches)

Darters(most to 3 inches)

Greenside darter

Rainbow darter

Iowa darter

Channel darter

Logperch

Orange-throat darter

Brassy minnow

Common shiner

Minnows

Spottail shiner

Emerald shiner

Northern redbelly dace

Bullhead minnow

Pirate perch

Redside dace

Northern crayfish

Rusty crayfish

Exotic!

Bryozoans

Pectinella magnifica can exceed 2 feet in diameter, though most bryozoans are under 1 foot

Typically a few inches in size,

freshwater sponge colonies

can reach more than 1 foot

Native Unionid Clams

Mapleleaf

Fawnsfoot

Rainbow shell

Round pigtoe

Black sandshell

Let’s Magnify! (x5)

1 foot => 2 inches

Zebra mussel(1 and a half inches)

Exotic!!

Quagga mussel(1 and a half inches)

Exotic!!

Asian Clam(to 2 inches)

Exotic!!

Fingernail clamsto 1 inch

Chinese Mystery

Snail(Exotic)

Sharphorn snail

Native Snails

Brown mystery snail

Big-eared radix

Physids

3-ridge valve snail

Storm hydrolabe

Creeping freshwater limpet

Buffalo pebblesnail

Malacostrans (shrimp and scuds)

Diporeia

Hyalella

Echinogammarus

Gammarus

Bloody-red shrimp

Exotic!

Bryozoans

Lophodella carteri

closeup

Mayflies

Adult

Nymph

Dragonflies and

DamselfliesAdult

More than 230

species in the Great

Lakes region

Nymphs

Stoneflies

Adult

Nymph

Caddisflies

Adult

Larvae

Alderflies and spongilliflies

Adult

Larvae

Flies, midges and mosquitos

Adult

Larvae

Beetles

Adult

Larvae

Waterbugs

Adult water boatman

Water strider nymphs

Dagger and snout moths

Larvae in a reed stem

Adult

Braconid wasps

Adult

Larvae feeding on a caterpillar

LeechPolychaete

Oligochaete

Roundworm

Ribbon wormFlatwormHorsehair worm

Let’s magnify! (x5)

2 inches =>0.4 inches (1 centimeter)

Leptodora

Spiny waterflea

Exotic!

Fishhook waterflea

Exotic!

Daphnia galeata

Daphnia lumholtzi

Exotic!

Daphnia pulex

Large Waterfleas

Simocephalus serrulatus

Let’s magnify! (x5)

1 centimeter => 2 mm

Copepods (Oarsmen)

CalanoidGrazersCyclopoid

Predators HarpacticoidBenthic

NaupliiJuvenile

Resting Egg and Juvenile Waterflea

Resting eggs can survive decades, even centuries until conditions are right for hatching!

Small waterfleas

Tardigrades (waterbears)

Tardigrades can spread a 18 month lifespan (not counting ‘hibernation’) over 60 years!

Let’s magnify! (x5)

2 mm=>0.4mm (400 microns)

Rotifers

Soft-bodied rotifers

Gastrotrichs

Let’s magnify! (x5)

400 microns => 80 microns

Ciliates

Codonella

Vorticella

Stylonichia

StrombilidiumThe fastest animal on earth?

Heliozoa (sun animals)

Amoeba

Can you see the diatoms it has eaten?

Difflugia

Testate amoeba (peeking out of its shell)

Flagellates

Salpingoeca sp. attached to a diatom

ProtozoaPhotosynthetic Flagellates

Lepocinclis

Algae, Nanoplankton, Picoplankton, Bacteria and Viruses

Spring viremia of carp virus

Bacteria – 1 microns

Aphanizomenon, a blue-green

algae

Aphanocapsa

Great Lakes Waterlife

The Great Lakes are home to:

• More than 190 species of fish

• More than 100 species of clams & snails

• More than 200 genera of insects

• More than 60 genera of ‘worms’

• About 100 species of macrozooplankton

• About 275 species of rotifers

• More than 350 genera of algae

Learn More:

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/seagrant/GLWL/GLWLife.html