Research into toxic algae on Lake Winnipeg is going viral
irreversible zebra mussels. microplastics From waste water. everlasting E. coli concerns. toxic algae blooms visible from space – All the problems plaguing Lake Winnipeg that Manitobans have come to know and hate.
But attention is now being paid to a lesser-known, nuanced part of the story that may shed light on the future of health. one of the biggest Freshwater basins in our warming world.
“Viruses, particularly those infecting microalgae, tend to be overlooked,” said Professor Emily Chase, an internationally trained microbiologist and virologist at the University of Winnipeg. “We are missing an important step in the process of understanding Lake Winnipeg.”
Last summer, Chase became the first researcher to analyze how viruses infect Lake Winnipeg microalgae, single-celled photosynthetic organisms that have bad effects. gathering together in a muddy blue-green film He May contain neuro-toxins Harmful to humans and animals.
In fact, microalgae themselves play an important role in the food web of Lake Winnipeg.
Algae obtain energy from the sun. Filter feeders and small invertebrates eat algae. These are eaten by minnows, which are eaten by smaller fish, which are eaten by larger fish like walleyes which are caught by fishermen.
And that’s how your beer-battered pickerel is made.
But there have long been concerns that climate change could further deteriorate the already unbalanced Lake Winnipeg ecosystem, with longer summers and warmer waters conducive to toxic blue-green algae blooms, known as cyanobacteria, that could disrupt swimming and the recreational or commercial fishing economy.
“To understand climate change we need to understand viruses,” Chase said.
“By using data on how viruses and other microorganisms are driving the lake, we can have a better idea to predict what might happen to Lake Winnipeg in the future and how things might progress as our climate changes, as the effects of weather become more intense.”
It is well established that phosphorus and to some extent nitrogen are derived from agricultural runoff and waste water. among the main culprits Contributing to toxic algal blooms on Lake Winnipeg. This is one reason why the lake gained the ominous reputation The most dangerous lake in the world in 2013.
It is less well understood how viruses might affect broader lake dynamics, but Chase and others in the nascent field speculate that viruses play a role in algae blooms.
“If we understand where the viruses are in the lake, how they are interacting with the microalgal blooms, then we can understand when these blooms may be destroyed and then make the water accessible again to people who want to swim, people who just want to enjoy looking at the lake, and people who are fishing,” he said.
Warning signs in Lake Erie
Chase drawing on algae-virus PhD work she did Mediterranean Sea at Aix-Marseille University in the south of France A Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow. He continued that work in recent years as a post-doc in Nashville.
The Nova Scotia-born scientist returned to Canada last year the same month that U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in, partly because “it was no longer an ideal place to work on climate change,” she said.
There could be warning signs for Lake Winnipeg, one of the Great Lakes shared by Canada and the U.S., Chase said.
Lake Erie used to freeze regularly, creating a community of microbes and algae on and off the ice each winter, which deposited vital nutrients for the food web into the lake each spring.
But Lake Erie’s ice has been disappearing for more than two decades, and some researchers predict it could be ice-free year-round by the end of the century.
Look Lake Erie is 96 percent frozen. Here’s why it’s weird:
If Lake Winnipeg goes the way of Lake Erie, its prized walleye stocks could be even more endangered and with it increased recreational fishing and tourism opportunities.
“If we understand what’s happening in the lake, we have a lot of data that can help contribute to climate change modeling, we can know what could happen to Lake Winnipeg if we continue our current activities there,” Chase said.
“The hope is that we won’t have Lake Winnipeg changing like Lake Erie, but we’ll be able to look at that timeline a little more closely and understand what happens in Lake Erie to get to this point.”
‘This is going to fill some of the gaps’
If global warming leads to longer periods without ice in Lake Winnipeg, it could accelerate the bloom-bust toxic algae cycle, said Scott Higgins, a senior research scientist at the International Institute of Sustainable Development.
“The summers are getting longer … and so you get the initial bloom, and then it’s potentially destroyed by a virus or something else, and then it gives way to a second bloom, which may also contain toxins,” said Higgins, who works at IISD’s Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario.
Higgins said another element of microalgae virus research he finds promising is related to what causes algae blooms to collapse after they grow large – such as some to the size that can be seen from space.
“There are still a lot of misconceptions or things we’re trying to figure out about what causes algae to get so big that they die,” he said.
“If there is a major virus attack … and the algal bloom is rapidly destroyed, all these toxins can be released into the water.”
He said Chase’s work will help Manitoba better prepare for the future of Lake Winnipeg.
“The interactions between viruses and algae and climate change are part of the process we are trying to understand,” he said.
“So I’m really excited to hear that Dr. Chase is doing this research, because it’s going to fill some gaps in knowledge that we’ve been thinking about for a long time.”
