Climate Change Creates Lake Eerie Poop Algae, China Next - http://clapway.com/2015/12/17/climate-change-created-poop-algae-in-lake-eerie-china-next-123/

Because of climate change, Lake Eerie will be experiencing a lot of toxic algae blooms throughout this century, with high chances of neon green sludge lining city shores. This isn’t unexpected after Toledo was forced to cut off their entire drinking water supply for the same reason last year.

Lake Erie / Image: Clapway

There is Green Sludge All Over Lake Eerie Shores

The annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Franciso revealed that the green algae on the shores will likely be the new normal. The new and more severe blooms trace to the Great Lakes of the Midwest and Ontario. When farmers put nutrients into their crops, the excess flushes back to creeks, rivers, and lakes. This gives way for new marine life, like blue-green algae that makes dangerous toxins.

Ohio State University researchers say this comes from climate change and phosphorous runoff. The latter is a serious issue across the Midwest, and several governments have promised to reduce phosphorous runoff by 40%. This may not be enough to prevent toxic blooms becoming more dangerous.

Why Isn’t This Reported to Authorities?

According to Ohio State University‘s Jay Martin declared that historical records on toxic blooms aren’t enough to predict them in the future. For the same reason, they cannot be tied. In fact, algae blooms may be unstoppable. From now on, all that can be done is reducing the amount of nutrients going into crops.

The Midwest is Having Less Snow and More Rain

Because summers are getting hotter, winters are having less snow and spring is having more rain, algae are growing quickly. Even if phosphorous runoff is reduced by 40%, algae won’t be greatly affected.

Clapway

Algae Blooms Are A Problem All Over the World

Aerial images of Lake Eerie show the extent of the algae blooms. The worst part is that it is a problem all over the world. Water has become warmer everywhere, and this makes cyanobacteria more common. They grow well in these conditions. This is the case especially for places with a lot of pollution, growing urbanization and bad pollution controls.

China is in danger for having algae blooms. They are boosted further from human wastewater.

Maybe Godzilla Will Be A Reality

If this algae blooms become common in China, it may spread to Japan. Animals living in theses shores may feed from this cyanobacteria. One day, the likes of Godzilla could even come to life. Climate change is forcing up to adapt to these conditions. At this point, good and bad change is inevitable. We have no choice but stop the damage from getting worse. For the greater part of this century, we will face many more hardships.

These changes might even bring new animals to the radar, including creatures from deep sea. There is a lot we do not know about the deep sea, and some of those animals may be forced to come up to the surface because of warming seas.

Will the Paris Climate Conference Help?

The Paris Climate Change recently brought together many countries to agree to reduce gas emissions and increase awareness of clean energy. Will this issue be highlighted to them? China, who has not yet peaked their emissions, might take an interest. Meanwhile, the American government has to take measures to fix this.

With more research, we may come closer to finding a solution to algae blooms. On the other hand, we could also look for ways to use them to our advantage. There could be ways for us to use algae like this to help in other industries. More studies on these cyanobacteria may bring us closer to a way to adapt to this situation.

Read: More Climate Refugees Are Everywhere – A New Catastrophe of 21st Century
Read: FDA is Worried About Food Security

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMwQaHtK904

Climate Change Creates Lake Eerie Poop Algae, China Next

#LakeErie joins the list of more bodies of #water to avoid! - http://clapway.com/2015/08/06/life-threatening-algae-in-lake-erie-354/

Satellite images of Lake Erie show enormous plumes of green, spiraling and spreading its way throughout its waters. According to recent studies, these dark green clouds are actually the result of an algal bloom (a sudden and exponential increase in an algae population). Samples taken of the algae in Lake Erie have been indicating record-breaking amounts, in what scientists believe to be the biggest and most deadly algal bloom ever recorded in the fourth-largest Great Lake, threatening the safety of the surrounding Northeast’s water supply, marine life, and citizens.

The Great Green Lake

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released disturbing satellite images recently of what they expect to soon become the largest and most deadly algal bloom in Lake Erie to date, beating 2011’s previous record. The algae in Lake Erie is made up of cyanobacteria—a type of bacteria that thrives in warm water environments. With this past July having been the hottest month ever recorded , it is no wonder that Lake Erie has become swamped with the toxic bacteria.

An Erie Toxin

Blue and green algal blooms such as the cyanobacteria in Lake Erie produce an extremely dangerous chemical called mycrocystin, which has been known to kill mass amounts of marine life, as well as cause severe and sometimes fatal symptoms in humans. If accidentally drank through tap water, or eaten with contaminated food, extreme symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea and liver damage have been known to arise. And if you’re thinking of simply boiling the bacteria out of your water or seafood, think again—the warmer the water, the more cyanobacteria thrive, meaning you’ll only be making the situation worse.

Due to these circumstances, the Ohio Department of Health was forced to issue an official warning concerning the dangers of the algae in Lake Erie—a hugely famous lake for tourism and recreation. Officials warned against any interaction with water from the lake, as any form of contact with it could cause anything from skin rashes to hives, vomiting, and neurological failure.

Is This Our Fault?

According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, yes–the deadly increase of algae in Lake Erie is mostly caused by human intervention, and could have been easily prevented, provided officials took the matter more seriously.

Cyanobacteria thrive in still, warm waters—especially those in which excess nutrients are present. Lake Erie has long been a dumping ground for excess nutrients, as farm and factory runoff sends enormous amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen to its waters every year. The vast majority of these nutrients come from fertilizers, animal manure, power plant emissions and septic tanks in the areas surrounding the lake. This, coupled with rising temperatures on a global scale provide just the right conditions for the deadly growth of algae in Lake Erie.

The State of Ohio is currently working on a deal that would reduce the amount of nutrients carried to the lake by farm and factory runoff statewide.

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Life-Threatening Algae in Lake Erie

The Reason Behind Lake Tahoe"s Blue Waters - http://clapway.com/2015/07/26/the-reason-behind-lake-tahoes-blue-waters567/

The effects of Algae

Almost everywhere you go to a large body of water, there is some type of algae there. Sometimes, it is there in great accumulation, and other times not. But they’re good news for fishermen, as sometimes the fish like hiding in the shelter the algae, grass, and such provide.

But what do algae actually do to the water? Well normally when the algae blooms happen in the summer time, the atmosphere in the water changes, the pH level gets affects and the oxygen in the water end up dissolving.

This is especially troublesome if in stagnant water as there is no circulation of water to provide a new flow of oxygen for the fish and fishes end up dying out. But that’s not the only problem; algae also bring the levels of hydrogen up with the rise in pH level.

This is essential to the growth of algae in large amounts. The relationship between algae and water is quite paradoxical as it can raise oxygen but also deprive the oxygen in the water. Other concerns can be that some specimens release toxins which has been in the news recently in the Great Lakes area.

What does this have to do with Lake Tahoe’s blue waters?

Well, every so often the Tahoe Environmental Research Center check up on the status of the lake since its founding in 2004. This past Thursday on the 23rd, the TERC released their State of the Lake report.

The topic of choice for the report was Lake Tahoe’s blue waters. The reason why the lake is so blue is because of the low concentration of algae. That’s why in ponds, you see lots of green, as the algae concentration is likely higher.

Most assume that the water clarity attributes to the Lake Tahoe’s blue waters and blue water in general. However, the water could be blue and not as clear. The data that came from the report on Thursday suggests to the researchers and public that clarity is controlled by sediment disturbances and blueness to the algae concentration in the area.

What does this mean?

For one, we now understand the relationship better between water and algae and the effects each have on each other, the levels of influences in the environmental conditions. The other is that the Lake Tahoe’s blue waters have only been getting bluer in the past few years, indicating a lower algae concentration and clarity due to practically no sediment disturbances.

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The Reason Behind Lake Tahoe"s Blue Waters

New Form of Algae Detection Emerges - http://clapway.com/2015/07/10/new-form-of-algae-detection-emerges654/

Determining blue-green algae hotspots could soon become a lot easier.

New research has emerged from the Laurentian University in Sudbury on determining new forms to test for algae in bodies of water. This new study has come from three years’ worth of research, and will involve direct scraping of algae itself instead of current methods of testing of the body of water that the algae is located in. One of the researchers, Charles Ramcharan, attests that this way of testing cuts result time in half, and can be done less frequently than current practices, which will allow for more time to analyze and work on possible solutions.

Ramcharan says, “It also means that we do a lot less work because we can go out and sample maybe once or twice a year. [We are] able to use the algae as sort of a long-term monitoring tool.”

Changing Algae Detection, Interaction, and Defense

Revolutionizing the way that algae is detected will vastly improve the ways that the scientific community is able to interact with the specimens. By being able to monitor the algae closer instead of simply relying on data determined from the algae’s body of water means that the data will be more accurate and precise in allowing for science to determine possible triggers and defenses against mass algae outbreaks.

This research also comes at a time when algae levels are predicted to rise dramatically. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts “the 2015 western Lake Erie harmful algal bloom season will be among the most severe in recent years and could become the second most severe behind the record-setting 2011 bloom.” If Ramcharan’s research is accepted, the new method of algae detection would mark a new defense against this natural phenomenon.

So, What Are Harmful Algae Blooms?

Blue-green algae is a form of harmful algae blooms, or HAB in the scientific community. Toxic algae can be harmful to humans, by causing several lesser-known illnesses such as Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, which is usually diagnosed in Canada. It is not known what causes these toxic algae blooms. However, these new forms of testing, as well as our knowledge of possible environmental triggers, will allow for us to be that much closer in solving this mystery.

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New Form of Algae Detection Emerges