Changes in submersed aquatic macrophyte distributions in Lake St. Clair, Michigan and Ontario, 1985-1995, as mapped with LANDSAT TM imagery

In 1986, an invasive mussel was introduced into Lake St. Clair, Michigan and Ontario, from the ballast water of an ocean-going ship. Dreisenna polymorpha, commonly known as the zebra mussel, radically changed the ecology of the lake by filtering seston from the water column, thereby improving light penetration in the water and changing the nutrient dynamics in the lake from pelagic to benthic. As a result, submersed aquatic macrophytes now have sufficient light and nutrients to grow virtually anywhere in Lake St. Clair.;This thesis is an investigation into the changing submersed aquatic macrophyte distributions since the invasion of the zebra mussel. Six LANDSAT TM images from 1985-1995 were classified utilizing the ERDAS Imagine...