The State of Lake Huron

摘要

Lake Huron is the second largest of the Great Lakes and fifth largest lake (surface area: 59 000 km2) in the world. It occupies the third position by volume, with a maximum depth of 229 m and mean depth of 59 m. Lake Huron is one of the least known lakes of the Great Lakes system in terms of limnology as well as food web dynamics. Consequently the Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS) organized an international symposium in September, 1993, followed by the publication of a peer reviewed book "The Lake Huron Ecosystem: Ecology, Fisheries and Management" (Munawar, Edsall and Leach, 1995). Since then, little has been published in the Great Lakes literature about the Lake Huron ecosystem, although almost a decade has passed since the book was published. The recent establishment of the Lake Huron Binational Partnership between Canada and the United States is very timely. The Partnership is focused on specific priority lake-wide ecosystem management and restoration issues in the Lake Huron basin. In response to a proposal from the AEHMS, the members of the Partnership agreed that this was an opportune time to convene a symposium dedicated to the assessment of the state of the Lake Huron ecosystem. The purpose of the Symposium is to bring together Great Lakes researchers and resource managers who are focusing on different aspects of the Lake Huron ecosystem, or whose findings are applicable to addressing key management themes for the lake and its basin.