For the more information about water resources in the National Park Service, please visit http://www.nature.nps.gov/water/.
Great Lakes Invasive Species Database
The Great Lakes Invasive Species Database includes data for five Great Lakes National Park units: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Information on invasive species in National Parks was compiled from the following databases: NPSpecies, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NPS Coastal Watershed Assessments (CWA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Criteria for including species in the Great Lakes Invasive Species Database were adapted from the Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System (GLANSIS). However, some of the data sources did not meet all of the criteria. The criteria included:[+] Geographic criteria
[+] Aquatic criteria
[+] Nonindigenous criteria
- The species appeared suddenly and had not been recorded in the basin previously
- It subsequently spreads within the basin
- Its distribution within the basin is restricted compared with native species
- Its global distribution is anomalously disjunct (i.e., contains widely scattered and isolated populations)
- Its global distribution is associated with human vectors of dispersal
- The basin is isolated from regions possessing the most genetically and morphologically similar species
[+] Established criteria
The database characterizes invasive species in two ways. The first are species documented in parks based on NPSpecies, USGS, and NPS CWAs. The second are species deemed potentially invasive because they are established in the Great Lakes system, though not yet documented in a particular national park and was compiled from all five data sources. Any species that was documented in a park or within the Great Lakes system was included as a potential invasive species for other Great Lakes parks.
Search the Marine and Great Lakes Invasive Species database.
Last Updated: January 17, 2012