Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
Official New Hampshire lake-depth information is available through the state’s Lake Information Mapper and bathymetry GIS layer. The mapper links individual waterbodies to reports, while the bathymetry service displays depth contours compiled from New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services surveys and Fish and Game records. Coverage is broad rather than uniform. One lake may have…
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Michigan has 10,899 inland lakes of at least five acres, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The familiar rounded claim of “more than 11,000 lakes” describes the same watery landscape, but the exact official figure depends on a size threshold and a legal definition. The DNR’s natural-resources summary supplies the 10,899 figure. Michigan’s…
Plants in the Great Lakes occupy several different habitats. Submerged species grow below the surface, floating-leaved plants reach the light and emergent plants root in shallow water while extending stems into the air. Coastal wetlands add sedges, grasses, shrubs and trees along the changing boundary between land and lake. The five lakes are too deep…
Lake Superior has fewer established aquatic invaders than the other Great Lakes, yet the species that have arrived have altered fish populations, food webs and nearshore habitat. An invasive species is a nonnative organism whose spread causes environmental, economic or human-health harm. A species can therefore be nonnative without meeting the stricter definition of invasive.…
