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Zooplankton Assemblages in Lakes of Isle Royale National Park
Completed
The water resources of Isle Royale include a variety of freshwater resources, such as the waters of Lake Superior, numerous inland lakes (a mix of oligotrophic, eutrophic, and dystrophic lakes), streams, bogs, beaver ponds, wave-splashed pools, and other wetland environments. Well over 3/4 of the total park acreage (approximately 570,000 acres) lies within this mix of aquatic resources. At least 32 of the inland lakes contain native fish species which are pursued by sport fishermen. The intimate link between the aquatic and terrestrial resources of the park is intuitively recognized; the food chain link involving aquatic and terrestrially-based species is critical for many rare species found in the park, such as the bald eagle, gray wolf, osprey, moose, common loon, and merlin. There is, however, no comprehensive baseline description of biological, physical, and chemical characteristics of the parks inland water resources. The long-delayed Inland Lakes Fishery Inventory for Isle Royale was funded in FY95-97. This project will collect biological/physical/chemical samples as part of that project because such information is a logical component to a fishery survey. The objective of this study is to characterize the zooplankton assemblages in selected park lakes.
Fitzpatrick, Martin - Deputy Center Director
Phone: 541-750-1032
Email: Martin_Fitzpatrick@usgs.gov
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