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Limnological aspects of the St. Clair River

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Environmental Assessment and Habitat Evaluation of the Upper Great Lakes Connecting Channels

Part of the book series: Developments in Hydrobiology ((DIHY,volume 65))

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Abstract

The St. Clair River is a major navigable waterway transporting water southwards for 63 km from Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair at an average flow of 5 100 m3 s-1. Water entering the river is low in suspended solids, organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrates, typical of clear, oligotrophic waters. In contrast to many large rivers, dissolved and colloidal solids account for 90 to 95 percent of the total solids load transported by the river, giving the river a turquoise colour common of glacial meltwater streams.

The river supports a diverse floral and faunal community that includes 20 taxa of submergent macroflora, at least 300 benthic macroinvertebrates and 83 fishes. A number of exotic (European) species, including 3 plants, 4 molluscs and 11 fishes, occur in the river with the macroalga, Nitellopsis obtusa, zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorphora), Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea), and white perch (Morone americana) being the most recent invaders. Production is estimated to be 200 gm-2 a-1 ash-free dry mass for submergent macrophytes and periphyton, 7 g for macroinvertebrates and 5 g for fishes.

The river also supports a variety of water-oriented recreational activities, is a source of municipal and industrial water, a receiver of municipal and industrial wastes, and a shipping corridor. Industrial discharges have adversely affected aquatic life, particularly in the nearshore areas along the Canadian shoreline south of Sarnia, Ontario. In addition, channel dredging and shoreline modifications (bulk-heading and backfilling) have destroyed large areas of valuable habitat in the main channel and along the shoreline. Improvements in the nearshore benthic macroinvertebrate community of the river over the past 20 years show that the river will respond to reductions in contaminants loadings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southwestern Region, Water Resources Assessment Unit, Ministry of the Environment, London, Ontario, N6E 1V3, Canada

    Ronald W. Griffiths, Stewart Thornley & Thomas A. Edsall

  2. National Fisheries Research Centre, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Great Lakes Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48105, USA

    Ronald W. Griffiths, Stewart Thornley & Thomas A. Edsall

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  1. Ronald W. Griffiths
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  2. Stewart Thornley
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  3. Thomas A. Edsall
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M. Munawar T. Edsall

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Griffiths, R.W., Thornley, S., Edsall, T.A. (1991). Limnological aspects of the St. Clair River. In: Munawar, M., Edsall, T. (eds) Environmental Assessment and Habitat Evaluation of the Upper Great Lakes Connecting Channels. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 65. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3144-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3144-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5386-0

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