News release: “With more than 32,000 islands in its waters, the Great Lakes contain the world’s largest collection of freshwater islands, but these islands are dynamic, undergoing many changes that threaten the islands’ flora and fauna, including climate change, habitat degradation, invasive species and some natural processes, according to a new report published by scientists from leading conservation organizations in the United States and Canada. The report, titled Islands of Life: A Biodiversity and Conservation Atlas of the Great Lakes Islands, ranks and describes the biodiversity (biological diversity) and threats to priority islands found in the Great Lakes. These islands provide essential habitat for migratory and nesting birds as well as rare plants and animals like the piping plover and Pitcher’s thistle, found nowhere else on Earth.”