Fragile Environment: Great Lakes Wetlands

Many of the wetlands around the margins of the Great Lakes occur as swales between beach and foredune ridges (broadly lumped as beach ridges, in the sense that the ridges define the trends of former shorelines). The Branch of Western Coastal and Marine Geology, US Geological Survey is studying the processes and recent history of beach ridge formation in selected lowland areas (beach-ridge plains) where the ridges are associated with extensive wetlands to gain a better understanding of wetland formation/destruction in a lake environment. Our research has focused on wetlands of the Platte Bay region northern Lake Michigan and incorporates information from numerical modeling of waves and sediment transport, historical shoreline comparisons, and a beach and nearshore monitoring program.

For additional information contact Project Leader, Bruce Jaffe