Many of the world’s most iconic clear lakes are degrading at an alarming rate — shallow, nearshore lake bottoms are being carpeted by bright green fronds of slimy algae, especially during the summer. These filamentous algal blooms, known as FABs, need lots of light, so they occur at the same lake edges where people want to swim and play.
Researchers are unsure why FABs are suddenly showing up in remote mountain lakes — as well as in some large lakes such as Lake Tahoe in the U.S., Lake Baikal in Russia and Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand — but an international team of lake scientists is tackling the problem. In a recent paper, they explore how nutrient pollution, climate change, loss of aquatic animals that eat algae, and invasive species are contributing to the increased occurrence of green bottoms.
— Read on www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp