Harmful Algal Blooms And Climate Change In The News

[bluewave]

http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/algae-blooms-and-climate-change

Algae occur naturally in most bodies of freshwater and saltwater. It’s normally fairly harmless, but the right combination of warm water, high nutrient levels, and adequate sunlight combined can cause a harmful algae bloom. These blooms can damage aquatic ecosystems by blocking sunlight and depleting oxygen that other organisms need to survive. Some algae, like red algae and blue-green algae, can produce toxins that damage the human nervous system and the liver (and they also stink — literally).

Recently, there has been an increase in algae blooms globally, and climate change may be playing a role. Warmer water allows some harmful types of algae to grow faster than other, more benign varieties. This warmer surface water also prevents water from mixing vertically, allowing algae to grow thicker and faster. This sets up a feedback loop: water made darker by the presence of the blooms absorbs more sunlight, warming even more, and enhancing the conditions for more blooms.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424153809.htm

Climate change is predicted to cause a series of maladies for world oceans including heating up, acidification, and the loss of oxygen. A newly published study published online in the April 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesentitled, "Ocean warming since 1982 has expanded the niche of toxic algal blooms in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans," demonstrates that one ocean consequence of climate change that has already occurred is the spread and intensification of toxic algae.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-nitrogen-problem-why-global-warming-is-making-it-worse

 

It is a painful lesson of our time that the things we depend on to make our lives more comfortable can also kill us. Our addiction to fossils fuels is the obvious example, as we come to terms with the slow motion catastrophe of climate change. But we are addicted to nitrogen, too, in the fertilizers that feed us, and it now appears that the combination of climate change and nitrogen pollution is multiplying the possibilities for wrecking the world around us.

Read this article in ESPAÑOL or PORTUGUÉS.

A new study in Science projects that climate change will increase the amount of nitrogen ending up in U.S. rivers and other waterways by 19 percent on average over the remainder of the century — and much more in hard-hit areas, notably the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (up 24 percent) and the Northeast (up 28 percent). That’s not counting likely increases in nitrogen inputs from more intensive agriculture, or from increased human population.

Instead, Stanford University researcher Eva Sinha and her co-authors simply took historical records of nitrogen runoff as a result of rainstorms over the past few decades, recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey. Then, assuming for the sake of argument that there will be no change in the amount of nitrogen being added to the environment, they calculated how much additional nitrogen would be leached out of farm fields and washed down rivers solely because of extreme weather events and increased total rainfall predicted in most climate change scenarios. The bottom line: “Anticipated changes in future precipitation patterns alone will lead to large and robust increases in watershed-scale nitrogen fluxes by the end of the century for the business-as-usual scenario.”

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2018/07/02/It-s-baaaaack-Toxic-algae-in-Western-Lake-Erie-make-early-arrival-because-of-heat.html

Intense heat has caused algal blooms to form in western Lake Erie much sooner than normal.

Though toxin levels are not yet known, officials are issuing their standard advice to stay away from all scums floating on the lake surface.

“Scums are always dangerous and people should avoid them,” Timothy Davis, a Bowling Green State University algae researcher, said.

There are many small blooms now instead of one large one.

They are in the early stages of formation and move around with the wind. One seen along the shoreline of South Bass Island State Park on Sunday was blown out into the open water. By Monday afternoon, the water near that island was clear, Justin Chaffin, Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University Stone Laboratory research director, said.

Light, sporadic outbreaks began popping up in various parts of Lake Erie’s western basin the second or third week of June, Tom Bridgeman, University of Toledo algae researcher, said.

These so-called “mini-blooms” have been large enough to be seen via satellite. As temperatures warmed, though — especially after last weekend’s scorcher — they grew faster and became denser.

Scientists said they still don’t know if the scattered, initial blooms are here for the rest of the summer, or if they will dissipate in the coming weeks before the main seasonal bloom becomes established, as they have most other years they’ve formed.

But this much is clear: The lake is about nine days ahead of schedule for producing algae, Mr. Davis said.

Lake Erie has more than 200 types of algae, most of which contribute to the food chain and aren’t dangerous. But the one that garners the most attention, microcystis, is genetically not even algae. It is a blue-green form of toxin-producing bacteria that looks like algae.

It can grow in water as cool as 68 degrees. But it grows exceptionally well when the water temperature is 75 degrees or warmer, Mr. Davis said.

Now, with the region sweltering through a long spell of daytime highs in the high 90s and even nighttime temperatures unusually high, the lake is as warm as bathwater. On Monday afternoon, the lake water temperature recorded by a Stone Lab buoy near Gibraltar Island, across from Put-in-Bay, was a whopping 79.7 degrees, down slightly from Sunday’s 80.2 degrees, Mr. Chaffin said.

He said it’s almost unheard of to have lake water exceed 80 degrees this early in the summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sophisticated Skeptic]

I heard about this somewhere on the west coast a few weeks ago.  Oregon or Washington...some type of emergency alert was issued not to drink any well water because of it.  

Just like with the odd animal behaviors going on...who knows if they'll give us the truth of what's really going on, or just more BS. 

Even 20 some years ago, I remember such smart scientists chiming in on everything....now it's like everybody's silent and scared to talk out about anything. 

[SENC]

I'm thinking  Grand Solar Minimum But what do I know?