Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that of Lake Huron through the narrow Straits of Mackinac, giving it the same surface elevation as its easterly counterpart; the two are technically a single lake.
The Maumee River is a river running in the United States Midwest from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie. It is formed at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers, where Fort Wayne, Indiana, has developed, and meanders northeastwardly for 137 miles (220 km) through an agricultural region of glacial moraines before flowing into the Maumee Bay of Lake Erie. The city of Toledo is located at the mouth of the Maumee. The Maumee was designated an Ohio State Scenic River on July 18, 1974. The Maumee watershed is Ohio’s breadbasket; it is two-thirds farmland, mostly corn and soybeans. It is the largest watershed of any of the rivers feeding the Great Lakes, and supplies five percent of Lake Erie’s water.
The Great Black Swamp was a glacially fed wetland in northwest Ohio, sections of lower Michigan, and extreme northeast Indiana, United States, that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19th century. Comprising extensive swamps and marshes, with some higher, drier ground interspersed, it occupied what was formerly the southwestern part of proglacial Lake Maumee, a holocene precursor to Lake Erie. The area was about 25 miles (40 km) wide and 100 miles (160 km) long, covering an estimated 1,500 square miles (4,000 km2). Gradually drained and settled in the second half of the 19th century, it is now highly productive farmland. However, this development has been detrimental to the ecosystem as a result of agricultural runoff. This runoff, in turn, has contributed to frequent toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie.
Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan; it covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha), including the 2,182-acre (883 ha) Indiana Dunes State Park and Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve, which are owned and managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The visitor center is in Porter, Indiana. Located in the park are sand dune, wetland, prairie, river, and forest ecosystems.
The zebra mussel is a small freshwater mussel. The species was originally native to the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally introduced to numerous other areas and has become an invasive species in many countries worldwide. Since the 1980s, the species has invaded the Great Lakes, Hudson River, and Lake Travis.
Helicodiscus diadema, common name the shaggy coil, is a species of small air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicodiscidae.
Helicodiscus is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Helicodiscidae.
Helicodiscus hexodon, common name the toothy coil snail, is a species of small air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helicodiscidae.
Hyperolius parallelus, also known as the Angolan reed frog, is a species of frog in the family Hyperoliidae. It is found in Southern and Central Africa. It is part of the so-called Hyperolius viridiflavus species complex and has a complex history of taxonomic treatments.
Helicodiscidae is a family of small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Punctoidea.
Viviparus georgianus, common name the banded mystery snail, is a species of large freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae, the river snails.
Indiana Dunes National Park is a National Park Service unit on the shore of Lake Michigan in Indiana, United States. A BioBlitz took place there on May 15 and 16, 2009. During that time, a list of organisms was compiled which included invertebrates.
The Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers is a North American organization led by the government chief executives from the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec and the US states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Through the organization, they seek to grow the region's economy and protect the Great Lakes. The organization began in 1983 as the Council of Great Lakes Governors to encourage and facilitate environmentally responsible economic development. The Council now serves as secretariat to the Governors’ Compact Council and the Governor and Premiers’ Regional Body.
Chrysodomus is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.
Centropomus parallelus is a species of fish in the family Centropomidae, the snooks and robalos. It is known by several common names, including fat snook, smallscale fat snook, little snook, and chucumite. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, its distribution extending from southern Florida in the United States to southern Brazil near Florianópolis.
Pyganodon lacustris is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. It is endemic to the United States, where it is known to occur in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Indiana and Wisconsin. It may also occur in the Great Lakes and into Canada, however its full range has not been fully assessed. It is commonly called the lake floater.
Euplatypus parallelus, previously known as Platypus parallelus, is a species of ambrosia beetle in the weevil family Curculionidae. The adults and larvae form galleries in various species of tree and logs. It is native to Central and South America but has spread globally, is present in Africa and is well established in tropical Asia.
