Description: Lake St. Clair Water Landcover
Aquatic habitats include open surface waters which may or may not support floating aquatic vegetation. In the Lake St. Clair watershed, this includes riverine, lacustrine and palustrine habitats, which are ecologically distinct, but all of which include environments where surface water is permanent so that water, rather than air, is the principal medium within which the dominant organisms live. Lake St. Clair is productive and provides habitats for a diverse biota including invertebrates, fish, mammals, and waterfowl . The historical fish communities in Lake St. Clair contained abundant lake sturgeon and runs of coldwater fishes, including lake trout, lake whitefish, and lake herring, that once supported commercial fishing in the lake. Many of the native fishes have been eliminated by commercial fishing, habitat destruction, wetland losses, introduction of exotic fishes, invasion by exotic species, and degradation of water and substrate quality.