Massive amounts of data have been collected from the Great Lakes basin, but until recently, no effort had organized this information and made it easily accessible. Additionally, there wasn’t a tool that allowed researchers and managers to visualize and summarize habitat conditions for the entire basin, especially across the US and Canadian border.
Catherine Riseng, assistant research scientist at U-M’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, recently worked with an interdisciplinary team to develop the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Framework.
Funded with a grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and support from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, this is the first publically-available database that includes harmonized habitat data and a classification of fish habitats across the entire Great Lakes basin.
