Introduction+and+Geography+Section

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Intro - A massive sheet of ice, the last of the ice age,crept across the North American continent, across what is now Canada, the northern U.S, and then finally stopped in Chicago. After thousands of years earth warmed,and a lot of ice began retreating leaving behind transformed land with holes and such, and so the Great Lakes were formed. Over lots of time an ecosystem was created on the land left bare ﻿when the glaciers retreated. An ecosystem can either be extremely big or rather small, an ecosystem is a community of living oganisms in an area such as plants, animals, and the place they live. The Great Lakes are the world's largest fresh water ecosystem. It took thousands of years for the movement of glaciers to create the Great Lakes. Now even in just a short period of time, humans have greatly changed this region.>.< =====

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The Geographic Setting - Superior,Michigan,Huron.Erie, and Ontario are the lakes that make up the Great Lakes. Only Lake Michigan is entirely within the U.S,in fact the U.S/Canada border runs through the four lakes. People in both countries depend on the lakes for drinking water, shipping, fishing, and recreation such as boating and swimming.:) =====

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One of North America's largest watersheds - A watershed is a geographic arc that includes all of the land and waterways that drain into a body of water. Smaller watersheds can drain into larger ones. The Great Lakes region is one of the largest watersheds in North America.*.* =====

A vast varied ecosystem - The Great Lakes region is a vast ecosystem. One way to understand how the organisms in the Great Lakes ecosytem are connected is to look at who eats what. This is what makes up a food web. All ecosystems have their own food webs, which are made up of lots of food chains. A food chain is a series of plants and animals, that depend on one another for food. :p

<- Glaciers in Alaska

The Great Lakes!

Questions c;
 * 1) How many lakes do the great lakes consist of ?
 * 2) What are two objects that people depend on the great lakes for ?
 * 3) Are the lakes salty or freshwater ?
 * 4) What is the definition of watershed ?
 * 5) Can you name one of the lakes that make up the Great lakes ?

vocabulary definitons ^.^
1.Watershed - The region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water

2.Ecosystem - a community of all living organisms in an area and environment in which they live.

3.Food Chain - a group of organisms interrelated by the fact that each member of the group feeds upon on the one below it and is in turn eaten by the organism above it in the chain.

4.Food Web - A food web is a graphical description of feeding relationships among species in an ecological community, that is, of who eats whom.

5.Freshwater - Of, relating to, living in, or consisting of water that is not salty.

The End :]