Researchers sought to understand how diatoms -- microscopic, photosynthetic algae that make up an estimated 20 percent of global carbon sequestration and oxygen production -- are able to bloom in an ice-covered Lake Erie and how ice decline across the Great Lakes is impacting the algae.
Spring weather brings welcome conditions for flowers and plant life to bloom across the land. The right mixture of temperature, moisture, and light helps keep the green world vibrant.
This curious adaptation is threatened, though, as warming global temperatures have led to widespread ice decline across the Great Lakes, leaving Lake Erie in a nearly ice-free state in several recent winters and leaving diatoms stuck in murky, light-deprived waters. In these new"climatically uncharted waters," the adaptations that benefitted these winter diatoms for so long suddenly ceased to serve them.
The next step is studying how this impacts Lake Erie, which joins the other Laurentian Great Lakes of the US and Canada to cumulatively contain approximately 20 percent of the globe's fresh water. "Hence, the large-scale changes already underway to the winter-spring diatom communities in Lake Erie and other lakes across the globe will result in large-scale biological and biogeochemical change," said Zepernick.
"PPRs are a hot topic within marine literature, yet we know very little about how these mechanisms apply to freshwater systems and taxa," she said."I am interested in elucidating the benefits PPRs may confer to both freshwater and marine diatoms across a variety of emerging -- and future -- climatic stressors.
Norge Siste Nytt, Norge Overskrifter
Similar News:Du kan også lese nyheter som ligner på denne som vi har samlet inn fra andre nyhetskilder.
Artists wanted as Salt Lake City looks to 'wake' the Great Salt LakeArtist submissions are now open for a massive temporary public art project that seeks to bring attention to the recent issues of the Great Salt Lake.
Les mer »
Freighter catches fire in Lake Erie Friday afternoonDigital content producer at News 5
Les mer »
Department of Justice, environmental groups sue Campbell Soup for polluting Lake ErieThe U.S. Department of Justice and environmental groups filed two lawsuits alleging similar complaints that Campell's plant in Napoleon, Ohio, has allowed wastewater and pollutants to flow unchecked into the Maumee River
Les mer »
In Lake Erie, climate change scrambles zooplankton's seasonal presenceA new analysis of zooplankton in western Lake Erie shows that their biomass and seasonal behavioral patterns have been drastically altered by human-driven changes in water temperature and food webs.
Les mer »
Utah, other Colorado River Basin states far from 'consensus' on Lake Powell, Lake Mead futureThe two divisions of the Colorado River Basin system have different ideas of how to manage the future of the country's two largest reservoirs in the long term.
Les mer »
Feds adopt emergency Colorado River plan that aims to save Lake Powell and Lake MeadFederal officials are enacting a 'significant' emergency Colorado River plan they believe will reduce water consumption by at least 3 million acre-feet over the next few years.
Les mer »