Indicators and Drivers of Habitat Quality and Water Quality in Inland Michigan Lakes

Inland Michigan Lakes;Water Quality;Habitat Quality;Natural Resources and Environment

Hecht-Leavitt, ZacharyWehrly, Kevin ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Inland Michigan Lakes;    Water Quality;    Habitat Quality;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/85779/Zach_Hecht-Leavitt_Thesis_Final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Water quality and habitat quality are important components of lake ecosystems and are controlled by natural and anthropogenic factors operating at multiple spatial scales. Understanding the relative importance of these factors and the scales at which they operate is therefore critical for identifying threats and developing effective lake management strategies. Through a series of models, I evaluated the factors that influence water quality and habitat quality in 263 inland lakes located throughout Michigan. I defined water quality and habitat quality as latent, conceptual variables indicated by measures of water chemistry, clarity, and lakeshore development. I then developed structural equation models (SEMs) to test hypothesized, causal linkages between natural and anthropogenic drivers of lake water quality and habitat quality. Models were parameterized for multiple combinations of spatial scale and lake hydrologic type. Overall model fit was significant at every combination of scale and lake type and data at the cumulative scale explained the most variation in water quality and habitat quality. The strongest driver of habitat quality was residential development, which occurred preferentially on larger lakes. Residential development also mediated the indirect effects of urbanization and wetland cover. Agricultural land use was the strongest driver of water quality through its indirect effect on forest cover. Modeling results also suggested that the current suite of indicators used by resource agencies are relatively robust measures of water quality and habitat quality. There was no significant correlation between water quality and habitat quality, suggesting these two concepts are fundamentally different components of lake health.