The bathymetry of Lake Erie is separated into Western, Central, and Eastern basins, whose form and feature have been strongly influenced by bedrock geology and the effects of Pleistocene events. The climatic regime is mid-continental but is modified by the overall effect of the Great Lakes, mean annual temperatures have a range of about 21 C. European settlement in the basin began in the early 1800s and land use patterns and historic settlement differ distinctly north and south of the lake. Changes in Lake Erie water quality are strongly associated with both agricultural and industrial development, but did not become severe until towards the end of the 1930s. However, changes and depletion of fish stocks likely owe as much to overfishing as to changes in water quality.
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P. G. Sly (1976) studied this question.