Algal blooms: their intensity has increased over the past 30 years

THE freshwater lakes have seen an increase in summer algae bloom over the past 30 years. The exact causes of this phenomenon have not yet been elucidated, but according to a study, the lakes in which this bloom has increased are the lakes that greater temperature rise.

However, the algae bloom is a issue because they can do a lot of damage to lake life and people because of their growth or some populations of phytoplankton they produce toxins. In 2016 and 2018, the rise of this phenomenon forced Florida to declare a state of emergency.

So far, the studies have been limited for a short period of time or for certain lakes and regions, but the role of human activities such as agriculture and climate change had not been explored either.

The research conducted by Carnegie Mellon University has been investigating these algal blooms in freshwater lakes for the past 30 years, using data from the NASA and satellite data from Landsat 5 fromAmerican Geological Survey. The team analyzed this phenomenon in 71 lakes in 33 countries on 6 continents.

These flowers came up in two-thirds of the analyzed lakes. The mechanisms that fueled this phenomenon do not show clearly defined patterns in the lakes in which they deteriorated, but the six lakes that improvement are the ones who have had one less temperature rise during the summer. According to the researchers, this indicates that the climate change may be a likely factor influencing algal blooms.