A Biodiversity Conservation Assessment for Lake Superior

Lake Superior Working Group

Lake Superior is unique among the world’s freshwater lakes. Situated at the top of the chain of the Great Lakes, it is the world’s largest freshwater lake by area. It is also the coldest and deepest of the Great Lakes, with a maximum depth of 406 metres. Because of its massive size, Lake Superior has a retention period of 191 years. Despite its northern location, the lake rarely completely freezes over due to the enormous mass of water, even in the coldest winters. It is also a lake of extraordinary biodiversity, supporting endemic and disjunct fishes, a unique deepwater form of lake trout(Salvelinus namaycush), diverse coastal wetlands, extensive sandy beaches and the cool coastlines and islands harbor arctic-alpine plants and woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). Developing the Lake Superior Biodiversity Conservation Assessment was identified by the binational Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP)as an important tool to better integrate biodiversity objectives into current lake management, and to support implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). This assessment project will support the development of a conservation strategy for Lake Superior A project team from the Lake Superior LAMP first developed a draft report based on a review of existing information. The assessment of biodiversity target health and the ranking of threats were done through the Conservation Action Planning framework. This framework has also been used to develop biodiversity conservation strategies for Lake Ontario (2009), Lake Huron (2010), Lake Michigan (2012) and Lake Erie (2012).The draft biodiversity conservation assessment (biodiversity targets, threats, regional summaries) was shared with experts for their review and comment. This included webinars that provided an introduction to the project, and a series of webinars based on the biodiversity targets and regional summaries. Over 80 Lake Superior experts reviewed and contributed to the document. Key changes resulting from expert review included updates to the viability and threats analysis and the addition of key information to the regional summaries.