great lakes exam

How old are the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes were formed when glaciers melted about 14,000 years ago.

Where does the water in the modern Great Lakes mainly come from?

Rain and Snow

Where does Great Lakes water go?

It flows out of the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.

A raindrop falls in Lake Superior. About how long will it take to reach the Atlantic Ocean?

hundreds of years

Which of the following are true about the formation of the Great Lakes?

• Giant glaciers eroded Earth’s surface, carving out the basins that now hold the great lakes.

• The weight of the glaciers pushed down the Earth’s crust, forming the basin that now hold the Great Lakes.

Which of the following accurately describe evidence of the glaciers that carved the Great Lakes, and the ancestral lakes that preceded them?

• Cliffs on Mackinac Island were made by waves from ancient Lake Algonquin.

• Erratics all over the midwest are evidence of the activity of massive glaciers.

• Moraines are ridges that were left behind by debris from melting glaciers.

Which of the following is true of the glaciers that carved the Great Lakes?

• All of these are true →

• they moved

• they were 1-3 miles thick

• they left behind moraines

• when they melted, they formed proglacial lakes

Which of the following best describes the structure and flow of the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes have always been connected, but you couldn't sail from the ocean to Lake Superior until we built canals.

Which of the following is the longest?

The Great Lakes Coast

Which of the following are true about the sedimentary rock layers in the Michigan Basin?

• Their erosion, first by rivers and then by glaciers, created the Great Lakes basins.

• They were formed by seas that covered this area hundreds of millions of years ago.

• They include fossils such as corals and shark teeth.

  • They are thick; up to 15,000 feet in total!

Which of the following is the correct order of events through geological history that led to formation of the Great Lakes?

iron-rich oceans > midcontinent rift > inland seas > river valleys > glaciers

Which of the following is the most accurate explanation for why Lake Superior is deeper than the other Great Lakes?

A midcontinent rift formed a valley, which then filled with sediments and sedimentary rock layers. Glaciers then eroded the sediments and rocks to create the basin that now hosts Lake Superior.

Which of the following are true about the processes of governing the midcontinent rift, ore deposits, and mining?

• The Great Lakes have always been connected, but you couldn't sail from the ocean to Lake Superior until we built canals.

• Ore deposits contain metals such as copper.

  - We all use products that were made from copper that comes from mining of ore deposits.

Which of the following most accurately describes where banded iron formations (BIFs) come fro?

from iron-rich oceans, in which iron reacts with oxygen to form iron minerals that were deposited to the seafloor,

Which of the following can be considered as evidence of midcontinent rift?

• igneous rocks around Lake Superior

• copper ore deposits

Which of the following correctly characterize how geological processes provided us with natural resources for modern economic activity in the Great Lakes region?

• ancient iron-rich oceans deposited banded iron formations, from which we now get iron for steel

• evaporation of ancient seas gave us salt deposits.

• hot waters circulating through fractures in the midcontinent rift formed ore deposits, which provide us with copper for wiring

Which of the following best describes the conditions that were primarily responsible for record low water levels in the Great Lakes 2013?

Decreased winter ice cover, which increased temperature and evaporation.

Which of the following are correct about the link between polar vortex, climate change, and Great Lakes Water levels?

• climate change has been linked to a destabliized jet strem, which can leaf to polar vortex

• polar vortexes resulted in very high winter ice cover, which led to reduced rates of eveporation

• ice cover reduces evaporation in part by reflecting sunlight and reducing warming of lake water during the winter

Which of the following best describes how the Great Lakes Compact protects water from withdrawal and consumption?

it bans large-scale use of great lakes water by people outside the great lakes watershed/basin

True or False: There are no exceptions to the Great Lakes Compact

False

Which of the following is NOT true of the St. Lawrence Seaway?

It was a natural waterway and required no human engineering.

Choose the TOP THREE factors that currently contribute to the Great Lakes water budget.

• evaporation

• precipitation over the lake

• runoff

The Welland Canal was built so that Lake Erie could be connected to Lake Ontario . However, its construction also had an unintended ecological effect in that it allowed non-native species to invade the Great Lakes .

• ships could bypass Niagra Falls

• allowed non-native species to invade the Great Lakes

In Ann Arbor, water we use at home for drinking or cleaning or washing your car will eventually make its way bake to Lake Erie:

True

How were sea lamprey able to devastate Great Lakes fish populations?

• Sea lamprey, previously blocked by barriers such as Niagara Falls, were able to enter the Great Lakes through shipping channels.

• There were no natural predators of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes.

• Great Lakes populations such as Lake Trout were slow-growing, could not bounce back quickly.

• Lake trout and other Great Lakes species did not have natural defenses against the sea lamprey.

Which of the following most accurately describes the sequence of events that lead to alewife take-over and massive die-offs in Lake Michigan?

Shipping channels allowed alewife to migrate from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes; with no top-down control from lake trout the alewife took over, but alewife struggled with some Great Lakes conditions, leading to die-offs.

The primary reason for the introduction of salmon into the Great Lakes was:

to control the alewife

How did invasive mussels get to the Great Lakes?

They were transported in the ballast water of ships that traveled between Europe and the Great Lakes.

Which of the following accurately describes the effect of invasive mussels on the Great Lakes food web? SELECT ALL THAT APPLY.

• It was a bottom-up effect.

• Because there aren’t native fish that efficiently eat the invasive mussels, the mussel invasion resulted in greatly reduced energy going towards fish.

• The mussels are filter feeders that consumed many of the primary producers.

TRUE OR FALSE: if you could drain Lake Michigan, you would have been able to walk across the middle of it (from Michigan to Wisconsin, on the dotted line shown below) on a bed of mussels during the heydays of BOTH zebra mussels (2000) AND quagga mussels (2010).

False

Which of the following is true regarding the invasion and control of sea lamprey?

The sea lamprey population in the Great Lakes is controlled (kept to an acceptable number) by treating the rivers they spawn in with lampricide every year.

Which of the following is NOT TRUE regarding harmful algal blooms? 

They are new, having only been discovered in the past 30 years.

Which of the following are TRUE about the role of nutrients in harmful algal blooms?  SELECT ALL THAT APPLY.

• Phosphorous and nitrogen are often limiting nutrients in aquatic ecosystems (e.g., oceans and lakes).

• The main cause of blooms in freshwaters (including Lake Erie) is the runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen from agriculture (fertilizer and manure washed off farm fields) 

• Algae/cyanobacteria need the following nutrients to grow: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur (CHNOPS).

Which of the following most accurately characterize the changes in land use in the Great Black Swamp area, and their effects in the late 1800s and early 1900s? 

Removal of wetlands and vegetation reduced the capacity of nature to filter out nutrients, leading to harmful cyanobacterial blooms.

Which of the following are causes of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie in the past 20 years?  SELECT ALL THAT APPLY.

• Invasive mussels, which filter out “good” algae.

• Runoff of fertilizers and nutrients from farm fields.

Which of the following are true about the effect of climate change on harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY):

• Higher temperatures favor bloom-forming algae.

• Climate change is causing bigger storms, which leads to more runoff, which causes bigger harmful algal blooms.

Which of the following are true about environmental policies aimed at protecting water from pollution?  SELECT ALL THAT APPLY

• Agricultural runoff like pollution of Lake Erie is largely unregulated by federal law.

• Up until the 1970s, there were no US federal laws regulating pollution of natural waters.

Which of the following accurately describe farming best management practices (BMPs) and their implementation in our three case studies?  SELECT ALL THAT APPLY

• Best management practices (“alternative methods”) have been scientifically shown to reduce nutrient runoff compared to conventional methods.

• BMPs include restoring some aspects of the Great Black Swamp, including wetlands and vegetation at the edge of fields and streams.

• The nutrient pollution problem is a cost of industrial farming and cheap food.

Which of the following are high probability effects of climate change on the Great Lakes? SELECT ALL THAT APPLY.

• extreme evaporation, precipitation = extreme fluctuations in lake levels

• decrease in frequency of lake overturn

• more nutrient runoff, more blooms and dead zones

Environmental action that prevents environmental hazards in one location often results in the movement/placement of the hazard to a location where the local community does not have the means to fight it.

True

Which of the following are predicted effects of climate change on Great Lakes ecosystems, as discussed in class? SELECT ALL THAT APPLY

• Replacement of abundant by now rare species

• Emergence and proliferation of pests and disease

• Extinction of native species

• Invasion by new non-native species

Unlike the oceans, the Great Lakes are not predicted to acidify with increased atmospheric concentrations of CO2, due to their unique geology and high buffering capacity of the lakes.

False