Whenever I hear about “The Great Lakes” my default thought is about the large North American system of freshwater lakes located along the US-Canada border. Little did I know they weren’t the only ones. Sometimes our education can be lacking and it’s up to us as global citizens to further it as opportunities present themselves. I go to a university in the United States where I study Environmental Science, and we learn a lot about our immediate area, but not much about anywhere else. I understand that knowledge of our immediate environment is important for us to learn, as most of us tend not to travel very far away to find work; however, I feel there should be more emphasis on the natural features of the rest of the world. The knowledge of multiple examples of similar ecosystems would be useful not only for comparison to ones we are more familiar with but for professional opportunities as well. Greater swaths of knowledge would equip students with the skills to branch out and follow opportunities further than ever before.

I took an immediate interest in the African Great Lakes as soon as I came across them during my research, since I happen to be from the Great Lakes region of the United States. I felt like this would be an excellent learning experience not only for me but also for those who will read this because the Great Lakes are so well known. The African Great Lakes is a system of large freshwater lakes in the Great Rift Valley of Eastern Africa. Seven of the major lakes are: Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu, Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Turkana, and Lake Victoria but there are many more. The largest lake in this system is Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile River.[1] Unlike the North American Great Lakes the African lakes were created by fresh water draining into the rift valleys created by the tectonic processes that formed the Red Sea.[2]

Notable Flora

The types of flora surrounding the lakes are as varied as the ecosystems the lake system spans. There are evergreen forests North and West of Lake Victoria and arid desert lands to the East in Kenya and grasslands scattered in between.

A few notable plant species are

• Oil Palm, found near Lake Tanganyika [3]

• Water Hyacinth (pictured below), an invasive species in Lake Victoria that grows in thick and fast to block sunlight from the water and cause hypoxia in the water, endangering native wildlife [4, 5]

• Acacia tortilis, found near lake Turkana in Kenya. These trees fix Nitrogen back into the soil where they grow [6]

Notable Fauna [7]

The lakes have a rich variety of fish including Tilapia, many different kinds of carp, species of lungfish, and a few different kinds of catfish.

Some larger animals found in these ecosystems include

• Hippopotamus, found near all shore except for Lake Kivu

• Crocodile, found near all except Lakes George, Edward, and Kivu

• Buffalo, found near most of the lake shores

• Flamingos, which can be found at the Easternmost of the Rift Lakes

• Kingfishers (pictured below), found near Lake Edward along with other large fish-eating birds

References:

1.Boudreau et al., 2012

2.Salzburger et al., 2014

3.Kalinga & Baker, 2009

4.Boudreau et al., 2012

5.UNESCO, n.d.

6.UNESCO, n.d.

7.Kalinga & Baker, 2009

Sources Cited

Boudreau, D., McDaniel, M., Sprout, E., & Turgeon, A. (2012, Jan 4). Africa: Physical Geography. National Geographic. Retrieved Feb 16, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-physical-geography/ (Boudreau et al., 2012)

Kalinga, O. J., & Baker, S. J. K. (2009, Oct 23). East African Lakes. Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved Feb 16, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/place/East-African-lakes#ref37056

Salzburger, W., Van Bocxlear, B., & Cohen, A. S. (2014). Ecology and Evolution of the African Great Lakes and Their Faunas. Annual Reviews. Retrieved Feb 16, 2021, from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-120213-091804#_i38

UNESCO. (n.d.). Lake Turkana National Parks. UNESCO. Retrieved Feb 16, 2021, from https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/801/