Lake Erie plagued by algae
NASA’s satellite photos captured the vivid green color of the western part of Lake Erie in full bloom. Unfortunately, these blooms are expected and come every summer. Contrary to its name, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are not actually made up of algae. The blooms are made up of a cyanobacteria that can produce microsystin, a type of toxin produced by certain freshwater cyanobacteria. This toxin is not always present, but it poses a serious health risk to people and pets.
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As usual, humans have significantly influenced their environment and have created an array of problems. Humans have greatly increased use of nutrients, most notably nitrogen and phosphorous, through fertilizers on agricultural fields, lawns and golf courses, and also through combustion of fossil fuels. When applied to land, many of the nutrients wash downstream and into bodies of water, which is suspected to be the main catalyst of these blooms.
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These algae blooms can also have detrimental consequences on the environments that they take over. Massive fish kills are just one of the many things that can happen as a result of nutrient pollution. The extreme growth of algae takes up carbon dioxide and releases oxygen, but when the algae die, they take oxygen down with them, which is used in decomposition. This depletes the oxygen from the water column, therefore causing hypoxia in fish, a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching bodily tissues.
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The toxin released by HABs can cause a variety of reactions depending on how concentrated it is. Dogs are much more susceptible to the toxin than people, so even low amounts can cause a dog to go into convulsions and die. People have reported rashes and blistering on areas where they were exposed to the algae. The consequences of long-term exposure are still being investigated. The toxin that HABs release bioaccumulates, meaning that it builds up in marine food webs. Even if an animal is not affected by the toxins, they can still harbor the toxins inside of them and pass it on to an organism that eats them.
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The City of Toledo, OH, which sits along the western basin of Lake Erie, has had significant issues with their drinking water supply in recent years due to the HABs. In 2014, the residents of Toledo were told not to drink the water because of the level of toxins from the algae. Governor John Kasich had to issue a state of emergency to get resources to the city. A bloom had formed directly over the city’s intake pipe that is miles offshore in Lake Erie.
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After the water scare, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ohio state water authorities issued a joint report on the pollution issue, but a senior lawyer for the water program at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington said that very little action came from the report.
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Although Lake Erie has received significant attention for these blooms, they are also occurring in other places around the world, such as the Arabian Peninsula, China and South Africa. HABs are present in most aquatic environments naturally, but nutrient pollution has greatly increased their severity.
