Warmer Climate Imposes Various Effects in Lakes

Global warming does have a disastrous effect on lakes. The new study from the researchers of Lund University in Sweden state that, a future warmer climate will produce different impact in different lakes. 

Based on the kind of organisms that are dominant in the lake, the researchers will explain the effects of climate change on the lake.  They believe the amount of algal blooms will multiply depending on the toxic blue green algae.

The team from the Department of Biology at Lund University, foresee how our water resources would be like in future. They would take into consideration factors like drinking water, recreation, fishing and biodiversity.

The detail of the impact of the warmer climate on lakes is being published in the Journal Nature Climate Change.

"The most interesting and unexpected result from the study is that the reaction to climate change will vary between lakes; this has been observed previously but has puzzled researchers. We have shown that the variation is dependent on what organisms are dominant in the lake," says Lars-Anders Hansson, Professor of Aquatic Ecology at Lund University.

The study states that during warmer climate, the lakes without fish will lead to clear water without algal blooms. This would differ to a great extent on comparing it to the lakes that have fish. There, the warmer climate will benefit the fish, which will eat up large quantities of crustaceans. These crustaceans will control algae and when they fail to do so the algae multiply and algal blooms will increase.

"Since most lakes close to humans contain fish and are also already eutrophicated, we can expect to have to deal with algal blooms even more in the future," says Lars-Anders Hansson.

Blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, are the type of algae that cause the most problems in lakes and oceans because they form very strong and often toxic algal blooms.

The researchers predict that the climate change is expected to lead to a rise in temperatures of 2-5^o C within the lifetime of the coming generation. 

"We know that we are going to see a change in the climate, but we are also seeing other major environmental changes taking place, for example 'brownification'. This means that we have several simultaneous changes that will interact and possibly create synergies," says Lars-Anders Hansson.