Potential For More & Bigger Toxic Algae Blooms In Lake Erie Grows With More Heat, Intense Rainfalls
Toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie could come more often and be more intense in coming decades thanks in part to torrential rains intensified by global warming, according to a study published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Heavy runoff from farmland, say the authors, can carry nutrient-rich fertilizer into the western part of the lake, triggering a population explosion of blue-green algae that pump poisons while they live and can rob the water of oxygen when they die and decompose.
And according to the study, if farming practices stay the same, the millions of people who depend on Lake Erie for drinking water and recreation — and by extension, those who depend on the other Great Lakes as well — could see water quality degrade significantly.
The report’s assertion isn’t just theoretical. In 2011, an enormous algae bloom struck Lake Erie, spreading to cover about 2,000 square miles — a record, and some three times more than the biggest of the algae blooms that grabbed headlines in the 1960s and 1970s. “Lake Erie was famously declared dead at the time,” said co-author Don Scavia, an environmental engineer at the University of Michigan, in an interview. But in the following decades, strict controls on sewage treatment plants reduced pollution and allowed the lake to recover.
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http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-may-trigger-more-toxic-algae-blooms-in-lake-erie-15812
