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Dr. Lucinda Johnson
University of Minnesota-Duluth
Natural Resources Research Institute
Senior Research Associate

Dr. Katya Kovalenko
University of Minnesota-Duluth
Natural Resources Research Institute
Research Associate

Dr. Catherine Riseng
Principal Investigator
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability
Associate Research Scientist

Dr. Kevin Wehrly
Institute for Fisheries Research
Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources
Fish Division Research Biologist

Dr. Lizhu Wang
International Joint Commission
Research Scientist

Dr. Ed Rutherford
NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab
Research Fishery Biologist

Dr. James McKenna, Jr.
US Geological Survey
Ecologist

Dr. Beth Sparks-Jackson
Post-doctoral Researcher
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability

Lacey Mason
Senior GIS Analyst
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability
Institute for Fisheries Research

-statewide data download package here

-links to download data for each county here

Welcome to the Great Lakes Habitat Explorer! This website includes a data viewer that allows you to view a variety of spatial information related to aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes at user defined extents. The website also includes a habitat suitability explorer with features that allow you to search for habitat areas which meet your criteria, annotate the habitat map, as well as search, export, and print the data. This information page provides a brief overview of the main features.

The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Explorer allows users to view and query spatial data layers, search for habitat that meet your criteria, zoom to different locations in the Great Lakes, add annotations to your map, and save and print the map that you created.

To learn more about the process of developing the GLAHF Explorer tool, please see our manuscript Goodspeed et al. (2016).

This feature allows the user to define and scale the area for the data viewing. The map area shown below the toolbar has the following features:

• Select a Basemap
• Zoom Buttons
• Home Button
• Zoom to a location provided by your browser (accuracy varies by device)
• Scale Bar (bottom left)
• Insert Inset Map (viewed by clicking the arrow at the bottom right of the map area)

This feature lists the spatial data layers available for viewing. The layers function allows the user to:

• Select the layers of interest by clicking the check box
• View the symbology for a layer by clicking the plus sign next to the layer name
• By clicking on the menu icon, users can:
  • Adjust the order the layers are displayed
  • Zoom to a layer
  • Adjust the transparency of the layer
  • View the layer metadata

This function allows the user to select combinations of spatial data with ecologically defined criteria to identify areas of habitat that meet those criteria. The available criteria are organized by headings and the criteria are listed below the data headings. Information about the criteria and how they were defined are available from the small information icon.

To use the function, select options for the layers you would like to include in your investigation. At the bottom, select whether you are interested in areas which match any or all of the criteria, and click “investigate” to see the results. The clear button removes the results from the map.

The tool will allow you to investigate any criteria, regardless of whether the resulting area is actually suitable habitat for any plant or animal species. Scientifically validated habitat maps can be viewed in the layers tool.