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Islands in the ice stream: were spawning habitats for native salmonids in the Great Lakes created by paleo‐ice streams? |
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| Authors: | Stephen C Riley Thomas R Binder Taaja R Tucker John Menzies Nick Eyles John Janssen Andrew M Muir Peter C Esselman Nigel J Wattrus Charles C Krueger |
| Affiliation: | 1. U. S. Geological Survey, Great Lakes Science Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;2. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, Millersburg, MI, USA;3. CSS‐Dynamac, Fairfax, VA, USA;4. Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada;5. Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, Scarborough, ON, Canada;6. School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA;7. Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;8. Large Lakes Observatory and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota – Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA;9. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA |
| Abstract: | Lake trout Salvelinus namaycush, lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis and cisco Coregonus artedi are salmonid fishes native to the Laurentian Great Lakes that spawn on rocky substrates in the fall and early winter. After comparing the locations of spawning habitat for these species in the main basin of Lake Huron with surficial substrates and the hypothesized locations of fast‐flowing Late Wisconsinan paleo‐ice streams, we hypothesize that much of the spawning habitat for these species in Lake Huron is the result of deposition and erosion by paleo‐ice streams. This hypothesis may represent a new framework for the identification and protection of spawning habitat for these native species, some of which are currently rare or extirpated in some of the Great Lakes. We further suggest that paleo‐ice streams may have been responsible for the creation of native salmonid spawning habitat elsewhere in the Great Lakes and in other glaciated landscapes. |
| Keywords: | Cisco drumlin glaciation lake trout lake whitefish spawning habitat |
