Background
Our ability to manage and restore Great Lakes ecosystems depends on the availability of scientifically-defensible means of describing the suite of anthropogenic stressors impacting the system and the presence of reliable indicators of condition that allow us to prioritize restoration areas and assess the effects of climate and land-use change. This on-line map utility characterizes the potential degree of human impacts on coastal ecosystems from the surrounding landscape, based on biotically-determined thresholds. These maps show watersheds in reference condition (minimal stress to coastal ecosystems) or providing increasing degrees of environmental stress. These thresholds were based on analyzing groups of indicator taxa - birds, fish, diatoms, macroinvertebrates and vegetation. Since each taxon responds differently to stress, each has a unique threshold. As a result, this series of maps provides taxon-specific perspectives on human stress to coastal ecosystems.