Abstract
Excerpt: The Laurentian Great Lakes of North America usedto be surrounded by shallow water bays, deltas, andother coastal wedands. When compared to theAdamic, Gulf, and Pacific shoreline lengths in theUnited States, the Great Lakes shoreline is similar inlength to the Adantic + Gulf shoreline (MITSCH &WANG 2000). HERDENDORF (1987) estimated thatthere were l ,209 km' of coastal wedands around theGreat Lakes in the United States. The number isprobably much greater for the Canadian portion ofthe shoreline as GLOOSCHENKO & GRONDIN (1988)estimated 9,000 km' of wedands in southernOntario alone. LAWRENCE (1997) estimated that7.2% of the Great Lakes 19,000-km shoreline ofCanada and the United Sta tes is wedand.