The algae bloom when there’s food any heat - very worrisome
1
Warmth plus nutrients contribute to algal blooms. Fertilizer run-off from agriculture and lawns should be curbed in addition to addressing climate change.
10
They haven't determined the cause, but things pretty much point to excessive rains (i.e. runoff from agriculture and residents spewing chemicals into the lake). Superior is a glorious lake and this must be thoroughly investigated and stopped. But climate change AGAIN in the title? This is not climate change, it's the result of expanding human populations and the pollution we deliver to our water systems via chemicals.
1
You mean the "Chinese hoax" has spread all the way to the Great Lakes?! smh...
7
It is interesting to read the article and the comments. I have spent my whole adult life studying the 'algae'. I have worked on the Great Lakes for many years. Now that the waters of L. Superior are showing surface blooms we have something to worry about. L. Superior was an ultra oligotrophic water body (=very clean and nutrient poor). An article writtern by Dr. E. F. Stoermer (my advisor) in the J. of Great Lakes Research (1998) on what 30 years of research had taught him. The microscopic organisms we study are excellent indicators of the condition of the lake(s). They are the "Early Warning System" in the lake. European humans have altered the base of the food web (=chain) just by living and working around the lakes. It appears that the heavy rains in the region have introduced enough nutrients into the clen water to alter the community in addition to the warming water. The perfect conditions to cause increased growth of the microorganisms. We are paying the price of environmental ignorance and relying on the "it will cost too much" line to do little to nothing about what we are doing to the lakes. Walt Kelly said it well, 'We have met the enemy and he is Us.' As long as we refuse to change our ways we will be subjet to the response of nature to our lack of concern and action.
22
Reading Hauser's , Algae Bloom in Lake Superior Raises Worries on Climate Change and Tourism, one quickly comes to a word central to the much of the talk about climate: " never", in this case never observed, it is my opinion that we have have got to get used to realizing that despite the admonition to never say never these days the word had begun to demand some respect. I am reminded of me,( yes I'm bringing it on home to me once again),get use to it. I am on a Kingston NY street, there are cars parked and cars whispering by, people going to and fro, I'm in costume , on a break from rehearsing in 1776, long tailed jacket and long haired wig. The times today are indeed like none ever observed, knowledge increases, and folks go to and fro , like never observed. This is a viewpoint, Superior's waters are green, and that has never been observed, and? ,,, can do something about it.
Very alarming. A similar occurrence has been occurring annually for years off the coast of Louisiana below and to the west of the mouth of the Mississippi River. In the Gulf, the algae bloom dies after absorbing all available oxygen and creating an enormous dead zone:
An unusually large algae bloom has filled the lake with a pea soup-like mixture that has built up because of rain, hot weather and a heavy concentration of phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizer, Richard P. Stumpf, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said.
22
@PS
The Army Corps of Engineers has been preventing the Mississippi from changing course over the last 100 years in order to maintain the navigability of the river and its tributaries, as well as to protect against flooding upstream.
Silt and other organic matter that would have been deposited far north of New Orleans is instead channeled into the Gulf of Mexico.
If Mother Nature had her way, the mouth of the Mississippi woulf not be New Orleans.
17
GOOD! Louisiana votes overwhelmingly for Republicans. Its past time these voters feel the consequences of their votes
6
@ebmem makes one wonder if the weight of all that silt might not be better put where it was "nature having her way".
Cyanobacteria? Not a good sign.
“People living within half a mile of cyanobacterially contaminated lakes have had a 2.3-times greater risk of developing ALS than the rest of the population”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria
8
Some interesting, and very sad, research coming out of Dartmouth pointing out that algae blooms might well be a cause of ALS and other horrifying neurological disorders.
http://digital.vpr.net/post/new-film-examines-research-around-cyanobacte...
Vote for those who care about the health of our planet and the health of humanity.
10
“Their increasing frequency and intensity are impacting the economics and environmental health of communities, states, tribes and regions around the nation,” he testified.
Healing our land and protecting our resources ought to be a priority of any administration.
But the pollution of our air, water, and land, with its domino effect that is impacting health and life, is scoffed at by POTUS who has installed like-minded dismissive nincompoops. Their absolute idiocy to shut down systems in place to protect us, deregulation, reduction in fines(?), increased loopholes, push carbon based energy, are blatant in your face avarice. This administration vehemently denies and are actively burying sound scientific proof because of their stupid lust of money and power. And the earth is groaning.
10
No problem with pollution, or global warming just ask Ryan and Trump.
7
It's sad that we have been talking about climate change for years and we do nothing. We were given a list of things that would happen in the future if we didn't do something about the warming climate and now those things are happening, yet we are still arguing about whether climate change is real. I fear that if we ever get a sensible leader in the office of president that will not be enough and even if we do our part, most of the third world is still spewing smoke into the air. Our children have a right to hate this generation, I hope that they can clean it up.
27
Green algae are caused by farm runoffs and other human pollution. Science is unanimous. Climate change is also a villain that spineless politicians refuse to acknowledge. But growing a spine will cause a politician to lose his election. So, let the next, and probably last generation deal with this "hypothetical" problem.
Pathetic, cowardly, really.
22
Grew up on the west side of Lake Erie, and it’s a well known fact that the local agricultural industry has been using the lake as a run-off fertilizer cesspool collector for decades, with resulting huge algae blooms the last several years. Very chemically intensive farming practices are used in the region. I’m from a local farming family there.
22
Look for the Republicans United Under Trump to try to criminalize any public discussion of environmental degradation caused by global warming.
7
Among the many bad decisions our president has made, his refusal to do a single thing about climate change, even going so far as to go out of his way to contribute to it, has assured himself of a seat at the head of the table when blame is doled out later.
All our "stable genius" had to do was do something, ANYTHING, and he could have shrugged his shoulders later when things went from bad to worse. "I did what I could" he could have said.
Instead, the name "Trump" will be used someday as a pejorative for a person faced with terrible danger who refuses to even recognize that anything is wrong.
7
Read The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan.
4
Ever since an anti-environment Trump became the President, it appears that our planet's pollution rate has reached the tipping point.
Algae blooms everywhere, CA had the biggest fire in history, the Great Barrier Reef corals are dying, devastating hurricanes last year, and of course to put an icing on the cake: get out of the Paris Agreement. Because per capita, we are the biggest polluters in the world! USA! USA!
9
Checkout the same issue in Florida. It is climate warming feeding off the fertilizer runoffs .
When enough businesses close down maybe some to the deniers will stop blaming China and Obama and face reality
7
“...In the bigger picture, the concern is that the blooms might be a symptom of broader changes, like increases in nutrients and warmer temperatures.”
Might be??!
Dr. Sterner said his team had yet to “connect the dots” about the triggers for the Lake Superior algal bloom, but he noted a possible link to warmer temperatures.
Possible link??!!
Let's connect those dots for these tentative "experts"
To the National Parks Service Ecologist and Dr Sterner and his team at the University...read this article and some of the information in it that you are quoted saying!
And a few other DOTS referred to in the article they should already know...
Like the Lifesaver who in 19 years has never known the lake water to be as WARM this Summer.
This Algae bloom and others, start in the Summer after large rainfall increase runoff carrying large amounts of nutrients from all the fertiliser used by farmers on all the farmland surrounding the lake, fed by rivers containing the Fertiliser and organic matter and sewerage runoff that flows into the lake more and more and increasing the total amount of nutrients in the water over time.
Proof algal blooms are caused by higher rainfall events creating more run off carrying "nutrients" into warmer lakewater.
1. I bet blooms start close where rivers discharge nutrients
2. Measure Nutrient levels in water.
3. Measure Water Temp and season/date when Blooms start.
Ever seen a bloom in Winter?
Ask a pool owner.
CASE CLOSED.
4
Republicans are showing all the traits of a species in decline, without the wherewithal to survive. One can only hope it's true.
9
We know about the 150 mile algae bloom along the FLA coast because it's getting national attention. What shocked me was learning from our senators, talking with the experts (shown on C-Span 2 today) about how lethal and wide spread these algae blooms are in oceans, lakes, and streams, and lingering for much longer than in the recent past. A shocking algae bloom, I'd never heard of before today, covered the coast line from Alaska to Central California, infecting crabs, that if eaten by humans, can cause brain damage. Very bad timing to have this emergency of epic proportions and a very BAD president.
8
When I was a child, the waters off the south shore of Lake Superior were frigid even in the dead of summer. How sad to be ruining a national treasure with our carelessness.
8
If you have never been to the Great Lakes region, I highly recommend it. There is a reason those of us who live around here call it "the north coast" -- I grew up on Long Island, and while nothing compares to the mighty Atlantic, these lakes are huge, they come with their own weather, and span so many different ecosystems. One of the US's / Canada's most precious natural gems. Visit!
But to get on topic, if we let management of the health of the Great Lakes get out of our hands (again!) we really need to wonder if we are either just flat out stupid, or so spectacularly careless we would make Tom and Daisy blush.
7
I grew up boating on that lake in the 70s, my brother was a boat captain too. This photo at the top of the article with the green water, I never saw water that color, not ever. Water that far out was cold, deep and dark blue. Was.
Has to be massive flooding. Not much agriculture up there, the growing season is so short. Drought years can drop the lake level on the southern shore, and everything drifts south. A few small rivers feed in, I remember smelting in the Onion River every spring. What has happened to the smelt, I wonder?
2
Zebra mussels aren't up for the job?
keep reporting these types of climate effects. most people are not connected to the "natural" world; if they were they would have seen this coming for at least 40 years. i have visited the same cabin on a high sierra lake every summer since 1978...... you can't help but notice the changes.
6
No worries, our Great Lakes will soon be full of Asian carp. They will flourish in warm waters full of algae blooms and dissolved nutrients. The economic possibilities will be awesome. Who cares if a few humans get sick drinking toxic algae, Cyanobacteria and microcystin. It sickens me to no end that our once pristine waters are threatened by human abuse, but it’s inevitable. Enjoy Pure Michigan.
3
Good to see so many folks talking about this scientifically, and asking for more data. Please go to the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) website, and you'll find out all about the science (cyanobacteria blooms in Erie have been studied for years), what's being monitored, and how you can help.
1
Here in Florida, Liberals have politicised this serious problem, just because they want to blame the Republican Governor. But as we can see, the same problem is happening in NY State and in Canada, very liberal places. Let us look for the solution and apply it, and let us not let this stupid resistance and blaming campaign carried by liberals to attach anything that resembles a conservative or pro-Trump person, to take us an inch away from solving the problem for everyone. The notion that liberals care for the environment and conservatives don't is also absurd. We live in the same planet, love to go to the same beaches, love animals and the environment just the same. The blame game is not going to get this resolved.
1
@Leonardo Riera, I like your comment but my sentiments lie very close to this: few Republicans or Democrats are choosing to live a way of life of caring for the environment....making a living and luxurious living is in the way.
3
Perhaps, if we burned more coal t,hereby releasing more smoke and CO2 pollution into the air, it would reduce the sunshine warming the air, and cool air would kill off the bloom. I know, lets have the EPA try that as a scientific experiment for the next few decades and see how it goes. Oh, that's right, Donald Trump has already ordered that little trial. Can't wait to see how it works out!
2
"I love the poorly educated." How did America reach the point where they now govern the nation? Humans have nothing to do with climate change. Russia is good- NATO is bad. Brutal dictators are great leaders. North Korea is our friend. Trade agreements are disasters. Mexicans are rapists infected with AIDS. Truth is not Truth. Don't believe what you see. The list is long, but each entry illustrates the point. No level of discourse can change where we are.
5
Algae blooms are just another nail in the coffin of climate change, and these, just like all the other symptoms so far, will be laughed off by the sitting president and polluting industries. It's all about making as much money as you can make today without concern for the future. Living in gated communities and belonging to exclusive country clubs, they see no further that the weekend golf game and night out drinking with rich friends. They profess a love for their children, and show this by buying them expensive toys and cars; however, they can't bring themselves to give them a livable world in the future. They consider those who would pass up immediate gains to provide for the future of all to be idiots - and they pass this irresponsible mind set on to their children. When the results of this type of behavior finally catches up with them - and us - it will be too late. See RevolutionOfReason.com
6
Overpopulation is the root cause of our environmental problems including climate change. Wake up!
Save a world, erradicate the GOP.
1
Those algae blooms don't exist. It's a Chinese hoax. And Trump didn't do it.
This is fake news, fake news, fake news. There is no climate change. Now go back to wadding in that green slimy water and shut up. This has been a message from Andrew Wheeler and Donald Trump.
3
Isn't it a shame how foolish man kind has been that we are now discussing the human induced fate of one of the largest repositories in the world.
1
Humanities greed and stupidity in polluting the only home it has, will ultimately lead to civilization collapse. This planet has begun mutating into a version inhospitable to humans. I feel sorry for the kids of today, life is only going to get crueler and harsher.
1
There is no global warming because Dear Leader said so, and we all know Dear Leader never, lies.
We have ruined our environment, and we are continuing to ruin our environment because the top one percent never have enough.
Lake Superior. Lost.
We allow it. We drink the poison. Socrates.
Our optimistic POV is unwarranted.
We elect Dear Leaders from the local level to the top.
A generation of old white men -- a patriarchy of greed and revenge. Dear Leaders will not be satisfied until they own it all, and the rest of us are rendered slaves.
You are thinking this is extreme fiddledeedee.
Yet history repeats itself over. We never learn. Humanity has embraced slavery the same way Americans have embraced hate. Hate and poison are related. It is a sickness, and it's in the water. You cannot separate these issues because they exist in the same ball of wax. A ruinous, toxic environment means politics as well.
We are mostly water. We are Lake Superior. We are runoff. We are the toxicity we have made. We are our fertilizer. We are our pesticides. We are our consumption. Our cancers. We are adverse to change.
Our species is doomed. We don't see ourselves as a species.
We are above it all.
Nature does not agree.
We are doomed and there is no going back. We all know that we are quite able to elect Dear Leader again and again. It doesn't really matter what Homo sapiens believe. Nature's on a roll.
Believe this: Dystopia is here. Your water is poison, and so are Homo sapiens.
3
Of course this is all fake news made up by opponents of Trump.
It is a Darwin Theory. Organisms adapt with aid of random mutations that is advantageous to its existence. The algae adapts but Homo sapiens refuses to take hid like the demagogue Christians, Donald and GOP.
Like to know if this is happening world wide?
1
Green Algae cause: ecoli from tons of dog poo left on the ground by owners who don't want to pick it up and throw it away.
I have never seen so much dog poo on the ground as 2018.
Americans have gone crazy for dogs, but, they don't want to be responsible with the poo.
1
Red and brown tides…blue-green algae…AGW seems to be very colorful.
No telling what type of new cooties could develop from this planet wide experiment. The speed at which we are raising the planet’s temperature is likely too fast to analyze and make predictions related to shifts in microorganisms. One thing is certain…headlines containing unexpected discoveries will continue. And probably accelerate as more issues emerge.
1
There is no evidence that algal blooms in North American freshwaters are getting either worse or more frequent. If anything, the billions of dollars spent under the Federal Clean Water Act have substantially reduced phosphorus loads to the Great Lakes and other waterbodies in the US. Despite the link in the article referring to the Finger Lakes (which points to a different article) the Finger Lakes have far fewer algal blooms now than they experienced during the late 20th century. Is that a reason to ignore the residual problem? Of course not. But let's not exagerate a problem that has essentially been handled adequately.
1
Very close to what is likely to be a correct appraisal of the situation in NY state but not in all states. The blooms are surely related to phosphorus and other nutrients from the runoff of fertilizers but Climate change is almost surely much less significant.
1
Meanwhile, as the perishes-the republicans roll back pollution regs, clean water regs, allow increased CO2, more coal burning and on and on. Those Trumpsters/republicans should have to pay for the cleanup. How about a lawsuit against the Republican party and Republican politicians?
9
Southwest Florida's current algae attack in Lake Okeechobee and distributed throughout the watersheds, coupled with raging red tide along the Gulf Coast from Sarasota to Naples, has not ended yet. And there is no end is in sight. Respiratory illnesses and the growing fear of long-term public health consequences, including cancer, ALS and liver disease, have roused citizen awareness this year more than any other. Eight years of environmental protection rollbacks by Gov Rick Scott's administration have contributed to the mess: no air testing, a state department of health that takes little action, policy makers casting blame on others, water boards filled not with scientists but with political cronies, corporate polluters marching onward. Clean water is a basic human right. And, boy, are we messing it up, with or without global warming...
26
The earth is crying out. Tragically, our president (& his government) has his fingers in his ears and is chanting "hoax, hoax, hoax" to drown out her cries.
19
“I have been emphasizing we are talking about a small volume of Lake Superior...."
I am surprised by this emphasis. Yes, the shorelines where the water is warmest and where fertilizer runoff is most concentrated will be a small volume, but it is also the most important volume. It's where we draw our drinking water and where the nurseries for fish and aquatic life exist.
Also, readers, please be aware that you are unlikely to hear a Wisconsin DNR scientist refer to man-made climate change because of the political environment in our state. It's risky for them to speak out.
19
Climate change is the kind of slow-creeping problem that allows for doubters and deniers to gain a foothold, but week by week, we are witnessing the news headlines report on emerging impacts: hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, algae blooms, dying species, etc. etc. It's like we are watching the death of our planet in slow motion. Yet even though we hold multiple forms of the antidote in our hands -- halting deforestation, regulating carbon emissions, developing common-sense energy policies -- the underlying disease that is causing all the symptoms is never quite obvious or immediate enough to lead average Americans to take action. By the time the planet is in critical condition, it will be too late.
44
@CK, I always believed in carbon tax. More you pollute, more you pay.
Just like sugar tax.
@CK
You make a good point, although I’d like to add that the planet isn’t going to die anytime soon; it will go on its way through the next billion or so years teeming with life of all sorts, just not us nor most of our current fellow species. I believe the important question now is; can we alone among the millions of extinct species that have inhabited this planet willfully alter our evolutionary programming to save ourselves. The “underlying disease” you speak of is us.
@CK The cause of this bloom will be found to be chemical runoffs from floods and agriculture expansion. This is not about climate change.
1
Algae--exactly what zebra mussels eat, which also like warmer waters. Sounds like Lake Superior might have a new visitor. . .
7
Unless the algae also is toxic to the mussels...
@Carl , blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria), which can produce toxins as mentioned in this article, are toxic to mussels. In my job as a research coordinator at a lakes and streams research and education center, the relationship between blue-green algae and zebra mussels is something we educate homeowners about. The invasive zebra mussels eat green algae and may actually make a lake clearer for a time, but they do not eat toxic blue-green algae. They take them in and then spit them out, allowing the blue-green algae to survive, and with less competition from the green algae. So, even though zebra mussels are algae-eating filter-feeders, they can make blue-green algae and toxin issues worse.
11
In Hamlin Lake in Michigan, zebra mussels cleared the water, allowing sunlight to reach deeper, extending the growth zone for the aquatic plants which drive algae blooms. Anecdotally, as a child in 1960 there would be one week in August with algae. Today, it starts the end of June and continues til nearly October.
1
Southern shore of Lake Superior. Climate change suspected as a cause. Didn't the people along the southern shore of Lake Superior vote for Trump and the Republicans, the ones who say there is too much regulation, are trying to weaken the anti-pollution laws and say climate change is a hoax concocted by the Chinese. The Trump voters are getting just what they voted for. Its past time they feel the consequences of their votes
20
@Bob Bayfield, and the surrounding counties that are on the southern WI shore of Lake Superior voted for Clinton
https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/wisconsin/
1
The Apostle Islands are home to multiple hill-hugging golf courses that fertilize to stay green in Spring and Fall, having the same effect on surrounding lake waters.
42
I would love to read something that tracks the water temperature in different parts of Lake Superior over the years. It would be great to see the warming part illustrated. I experienced the freakishly warm water of Southern California this year, and then just weeks later read about it in this paper.
It's been many years since I've been to Superior, but I spend a couple of weeks driving all around its northern coast and camping. I recognize that this article is mainly about the south, but it's hard to square the cool August days (and cold August water!) of my youth with these problems.
6
@Ray The temperature has been tracked and the evidence for warming lake-wide is indisputable. See, "Lake Superior summer water temperatures are increasing more
rapidly than regional air temperatures: A positive ice-albedo feedback" by
Jay A. Austin and Steven M. Colman, Geophysical Research Letters, VOL. 34, L06604, doi:10.1029/2006GL029021, 2007.
8
@Ray
Here ya go:
http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/climate/superior
and
https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/statistic/
and
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jaustin/ICE.html
It seems all of the news I read about blooms implies that they are getting worse and happening more frequently. Like with other environmental crises, we need trace any of the human related behaviors that may be contributing, then educate about and regulate those behaviors.
8
The article mentioned toxic runoff connected with severe rainfall. We might not be able to control rainfall but the environmental damage of the toxins and nutrients are our fault. The federal government is cutting back on environmental regulations so it is up to states and local governments to act.
13
@mpcNYC
NYC dumps millions of gallons of secondary treated sewage, along with one million gallons of raw sewage into the waterways. It has a hundred year old sewage system that needs to be modernized, as it is causing acidification of the Long Island Sound.
That is fact, and NYC should be spending more money on it, rather than pretending its infrastructure failures are the consequence of global warming and begging for federal funds it claims to be entitled to receive.
4
To attribute the algal blooms to temperature is to narrow the focus and shift attention from other potentially critical factors such as elevated carbon dioxide in the waters, the subsequent change in pH, the contributions of extreme rainfall events such as the addition of sediments and the accompanying micronutrients, and mixing of water layers with the lake. Each of those additional factors breaches one or more of the natural limiters to the explosive growth of algae.
18
@Jim Tokuhisa
Good observations, but all these factors appear to have a dominant common source: the continued burning of fossil fuels. I fear that we have reached a major tipping point. This is but one of many indicators that have appeared over the last two years.
24
@Ed DeRosha
An increase in atmospheric CO2 from 200 ppm to 400 ppm does not materially alter the proportion dissolved in water, nor does it alter the pH of the water, particularly since the temperature of the water is supposedly higher and CO2 is less soluble in warmer water than in colder water. Both the oceans and the fresh water supply have substantial calcium buffers that prevent changes in pH.
Municipalities release sewage effluent from secondary treatment plants that is both warmer than the river water that would otherwise flow from the mountains and also has high chemical and oxygen demand that serves as food for the algae. Runoff from farms and fertilized lawns and golf courses provides additional nutrients.
If NASA/NOAA provided a thermal picture over Lake Superior, or NYC or any other city alongside lakes and oceans, there would be a significant heat plume illustrated. That heat plume would also contain the COD and BOD contaminated flow of water that exceeds the ability of nature to digest, resulting in the dead zones.
An extreme rainfall would cool water. Heavy rainfalls in urban areas wash substantial quantities of road grime and other BOD and COD materials, which just provide extra nutrients to the algae.
The heat island effect, coupled with the high nutrient levels is the problem, not fossil fuels. Oh, but that would mean local governments are responsible for not polluting, rather than the imaginary federal obligation.
@ebmem 1. the pH of oceans is dropping due to higher CO2 in the atmosphere. I am not aware of this being documented for Lake Superior, but it is quite likely to be the case as well. Lake Superior has very low Ca concentrations because there is almost no limestone in its catchment. That is why the zebra mussel population in Superior is much lower than in the other Gt. Lakes. 2. Satellite images of Lake Superior temperature show no thermal plume from the small cities of Superior and Duluth. 3. Heavy summer rains deliver water that is warmer than very cold Lake Superior. 4. Waste water treatment in Duluth/Superior is far better today than it was decades ago, when there were no algae blooms such as people have seen this summer.
4
Here in SW Florida we have naturally occurring red tide which has been recognized for 100's of years but is hanging around off shore for much longer than usual. Toxic to marine critters 100,00 's of fish dead, sea turtles even manatees and a whale shark swept up on the barrier island beaches. Also can be irritating to humans. Besides red tide we have green algae infestations from water released from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee into the estuaries and canals in the area. Terribly hard on the tourist industry and the local residents.
17
Ummm. Didn’t Florida help elect the current catastrophic president and all the venal cabinet members he appointed? So exactly what should you, or any of us, expect other than what we are now experiencing??
1
When the coral reefs finally die off, a bit to go, maybe we can use them as foundations for some more condos.
Is anything occurring in Lake Baikal in Siberia?
The two are rather closely comparable.
The Russian lake is slightly smaller in area than Superior, but because it is twice as deep, it contains a larger volume of water. On the count of latitude, they are also rather closely matched, with Baikal about 5 degrees farther north.
Let me add that the picture of Superior breaks my heart. Ferrying to Isle Royale, 45 years ago, I was struck by the magnificent sapphire clarity of the icy water, which could be compared only to the Tahoe of my youth. For shame.
And I fear for the Canadian twin of the Boundary Waters, Quetico.
43
Baikal has less than a few percent of surrounding development and agricultural runoff as compared to any of our Great Lakes.
@alyosha Yes, Lake Baikal is terribly polluted as well.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/19/lake-baikal-russia-cripple...
1
Human waste and the increase in CO2 are the most likely causes of these blooms. In fact, all forms of vegetation at high altitude are flourishing this year, as an obvious result of more CO2, which is more noticeable in areas suffering from a paucity of water.
25
I have traveled to the Boundary Waters nearly every year since I was a kid and this year the waters in lakes that are normally bracing to swim in were tepid. It was a depressing shock to realize that it's finally actually happening. I'm sure fish die offs are in the offing in these lakes too. Very hard to accept.
54
@AreaMan We have canoed the Quetico for the last 40 years which you know is contiguous with the Boundary Waters. In addition to warmer water I have noticed the fish to be much more subdued. Northerns that once were ferocious fighters feel like walleyes on my line. I suspect the fish are either starving or oxygen deprived.
3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5727154/
There are links between algae blooms and neurotoxins.
9
@Diane Shirley
Eeek, that's a scary article. Time to get that primo water filter and forego lake fish, much less lake swimming. Mom Nature is going to stomp us good if we continue to dis her.
A question: lots of health foods contain blue-green algae, as in spirulina, etc. Is there any connection between those algae and cyanoalgae?
2
There was a flood event in the Keweenaw Peninsula and northern Wisconsin on Fathers' day which affected Portage Lake and access to Lake Superior. The lake may be warming but the excess nutrients from the flood have to have a large impact this year. Not to code septic systems, and dairy farm pollution containment (i.e. manure) dams all flooded. All those nutrients lead to algae formation.
44
Many of those so-called called dairy "farms" are actually factory farm operations with thousands of cows in each. Not good for the environment.
38
inland yooper lakes can be highly toxic due to mining tailings, no real agriculture up there, no lawns, lots of Finns, few towns on the lake, sounds natural?
14
@northlander
I don't think the problem is along the Michigan part of Lake Superior, I think it is more Wisconsin and Minnesota. I suspect they have more phosphorus from agriculture over there.
I can never understand how so many yoopers can vote for evil republicans these days, given the damage that they are doing to the planet. I understand how global warming would seem appealing in April when yet another snow storm come slamming in, but learning that Lake Superior is warming so fast makes me cry.
@northlander
Yooper visitor here- Yes, I have often seen the deer, bear, and racoons going off to work in the mines.
Do similar algae blooms occur elsewhere when lake water reaches the temperature now being recorded in Lake Superior?
What do we know about the measurable current plant nutrient content of Lake Superior water vs. that of other lakes where algae blooms do or do not occur? Until such information is collected and analyzed placing blame or speculating on corrective measures would seem somewhat pointless -- more politically than scientifically motivated.
8
When you are the single largest freshwater lake in the world, and Northern most, everything matters.
81
@Penseur
I think the term is "deadzone." Here:
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/deadzone.html
The "nuisance" and in extreme cases outright toxicity of algae blooms are a well-known problem, in lakes, coastal areas, and even down to the level of creeks and streams.
29
@Naomi Marcus: Yes. but what matters most is finding out what is causing the problem, so that it can be addressed in government funded scientific research.
1