Cold Deserts!

beach We usually associate the Great Lakes with watersheds and wetlands. However, like the oceans, the Great Lakes also have large sandy areas on their edges. Sand is nutrient-poor which presents a challenge to anything that wishes to make a home in it. This type of habitat tends to lose water rapidly to wind and sun. Wind also makes sandy areas unstable and impermanent.

Around the Great Lakes, large sandy areas tend to form near areas where extensive erosion is taking place. Some examples are:

Plants like Sea Rocket & American Beach Grass can be found on dunes around the Great Lake as well as at the sea shore. Beach grass helps to stabilize the shifting sand by spreading its rhizomes just below the surface. Sand Cherry is a plant peculiar to these sandy areas.

Pannes, which are areas that are wet for part of the year, form behind the dunes. They give a home for sedges and rushes, commonly found in marshes.

Trees more commonly found in northern forests take hold on more stable ridges:

as well as eastern hemlock & sugar maple

Also, prairie plants such as:

can be found in these areas. Prairies, after all, are grasslands inhabited by species that are more tolerant to drought than the species found in other habitats around the Great Lakes.

The biggest threat to Great Lakes sandlands is overuse by foot and vehicle traffic which can destabilize the dunes and ridges, opening them up to destructive "blowouts".

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