The Ecological History of Lake Erie According to Algae (2014)

Abstract

Lake Erie is well known for its cultural perturbations with an extensive history of monitoring and paleolimnoloigcal studies, particularly those using diatoms, that present evidence of major change in the lake’s environmental quality. The lake’s biological and physical processes are strongly affected by its topography and division into three basins. Species known to be tolerant to eutrophic conditions and those common in oligotrophic to mesotrophic lakes were relatively abundant in presettlement assemblages, inferring that the lake was at least seasonally productive prior to Euro-American settlement. Overall abundance of diatoms was relatively low during presettlement, but relative abundance was high for some species