ADDED HUMAN PRESSURES
Human impacts on the environment are currently the most significant drivers of ecosystem change in the Great Lakes region. The region's population has placed enormous pressures on its water resources through development, the discharge of pollutants, timber harvesting, agriculture, and the introduction of non-native invasive species. Climate change, driven by increasing atmospheric levels of heat-trapping gases from human activity, will interact with and magnify the impacts of these human stresses.