Northside Marsh is a coastal wetland on the Sandusky Bay privately owned and managed by my dad. (Photo credit: Kathryn Smith)
In the past recent years, I have noticed a rise in Lake Erie's water levels. This has also contributed to an increase of the water levels in the Sandusky Bay (Ohio) and has been affecting coastal wetland communities within the bay. My dad owns and manages a private wetland that I have seen go through changes of vegetation and tree loss. The marsh was diked several years ago for the purpose of managing it for duck hunting. However, due to a restriction and lack of funding, the marsh remains open to the influences of Sandusky Bay on its western end. I remember the marsh used to be covered in cattails, phragmites, and American lotus and used to have large standing trees on the marsh edge like sycamore and willow that could withstand the occasional rise in water levels over a short period of time. Looking at the marsh today, it is mostly open water with a few stands of cattails and phragmites, and dead or dying trees along its shore.
Aerial photo of Northside Marsh located north of the seen train tracks. (Google Maps)
As the water levels rise in the marsh, it is also expanding into areas of the marsh that used to just experience periodic flooding. Not only is this changing the herbaceous vegetation cover, there is now one specific low lying area of the marsh near the entrance that washes out the road with every northeaster (which are becoming more powerful every year).
Changes in water levels in the Great Lakes since the 1860's. (U.S. EPA)
The Great Lakes have naturally occurring cycles of fluctuating water levels, but the past few years the lakes have shown notable increases from their historic high trends (
U.S. EPA). Precipitation, snowmelt runoff, drought, evaporation rates, and people withdrawing water for several different uses all influence water levels within the lakes. However with the climate change prediction that the Midwest is likely to experience more rain, there is a possibility for Lake Erie's water levels to continue to rise or remain relatively high as it receives outflows from Lake Michigan and Huron (
U.S. EPA). High lake levels could impact other coastal wetland marsh which could decrease water quality and increase algal blooms and shoreline erosion.
I think people have noticed these changes to the water level rise in Lake Erie. During the summer of 2020, I worked at a marina and I would dock boats with people from out of town. I remember getting comments from boater saying they didn't remember the water being this high last year. Also, driving around Lake Erie's coastline, it's easy to see the open water shifts wetlands are going through.
As I end my last blog, I'd like to say that I throughly enjoyed the material presented in this course. I've learned so much interesting material about the Midwest's and Wisconsin's ecology. I think the most important take away from this course is to never forget that we have a connection with the landscape and if we don't take care of our environment, we could be risking our health in the future. Also I think it's important to continue to have a conversation with peers, friends, and family about the good (or natural) and the bad (anthropogenic) historical changes that have shaped Midwestern ecology today and the changes that have yet to come with invasive species and climate change.
Sources:
U.S. EPA. Climate Change Indicators: Great Lakes Water Levels and Temperatures.
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/great-lakes
Hi Kathryn, I enjoyed reading your post. What a cool personal connection to a coastal wetland! For my final project, I researched Great Lakes coastal wetlands which makes me curious...does your dad receive any government or private assistance with management of the wetland? For example, I know Audubon has provided some landowners assistance with wetland management.
ReplyDeleteI love the personal connection that you have to the class concepts! Thank you for sharing your story (and picture) with the class. First, I really enjoyed your final class takeaway; I completely agree that conversations with our peers would be beneficial to the furthering of conservation. I am wondering if your dad's wetland has seen any increase of invasive species as a result of the increasing water levels?
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn, you did a wonderful job on your post! It was very interesting to read how owns and manages a wetland. You truly have the most interesting story and it was so amazing to her all the biodiversity present on the wetland at one point! I personally connected to your post on how if we don't take care of our environments, we could be risking our health in the future. I mentioned this in my endnotes myself how not taking care of the environment could have adverse effects on ourselves. Do you have any personal stories from your wetland that has left you or anyone you know with any health impacts?
ReplyDeleteHey Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I've heard so much about costal erosion on Lake Michigan due to the very high water levels these past couple years, but I never thought about how the other great lakes might be faring. Furthermore, I never would have thought about the great lakes an the impacts of high water on the surrounding wetlands. This may be a silly question, but would you think that Lake Erie could be managed more effectively than Lake Michigan/Huron? I ask because Erie has the huge drop over Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario, allowing the lake to have a substancial potential outflow point compared to the slow-flowing Detroit River outlet of Lake Huron.
Another interesting point I thought of is about Seiches, which are basically lake-sized waves, similar to bathwater slushing back and forth. Lake Erie (so I remember) can get very large seiches. I imagine the impact of these momentary floods would worsen with high lake levels, similar to how rising sea levels worsens the impacts of spring tides. So, you definitely have an apt comparison going on in your post!