Sentences with phrase «cyanobacteria blooms»
Cyanobacteria blooms refer to massive growths of certain bacteria in bodies of water, such as lakes or oceans. These bacteria, called cyanobacteria, can reproduce quickly and form dense colonies or mats that float on the surface of the water. These blooms can cause the water to appear green, blue-green, or reddish-brown, and they may release toxins that are harmful to other organisms and the environment. Full definition
After measuring BMAA levels in cyanobacteria blooms in the Baltic Sea and in the plankton, fish and mussels that feed on them, researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden concluded that, BMAA levels were six times higher in plankton and up to 200 times higher in some fish than in the blooms.
scientificamerican.com
The unsolved mystery resurfaced in the PNAS cyanobacteria bloom study, which provides the first evidence for BMAA biomagnification in an aquatic food chain.
«Our results suggest that current phosphorus loading targets will be insufficient for reducing the intensity of cyanobacteria blooms to desired levels, so long as the lake remains in a heightened state of bloom susceptibility,» said lead author Daniel Obenour of the U-M Water Center.
«We've seen a number of ALS patients that seem to be living near water bodies that have known present or historical cyanobacteria blooms,» he says.
Brand is attempting to understand that risk by tracking how BMAA moves through the food chain in Florida waters where regular cyanobacteria blooms occur.
Last year Swedish researchers also found the neurotoxin in bottom - feeding fish living in the Baltic Sea, a hotbed for cyanobacteria blooms, although at lower levels than seen in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Florida coast.
«Lake Erie increasingly susceptible to large cyanobacteria blooms.»
Since the detection of the toxin microcystin left nearly half a million Ohio and Michigan residents without drinking water for several days in early August, discussions of ways to prevent a recurrence have largely focused on the need to reduce the amount of phosphorus fertilizer that washes off croplands and flows into western Lake Erie to trigger harmful cyanobacteria blooms.
The Water Resources Research paper is titled «Using a Bayesian hierarchical model to improve Lake Erie cyanobacteria bloom forecasts.»
The paper is a technical analysis of the uncertainties involved in computer modeling studies that use the amount of phosphorus entering Lake Erie in the spring to predict the size of late - summer cyanobacteria blooms, which have grown larger since the mid-1990s.
Also, since cyanobacteria blooms become entrenched and usually occur every summer in impacted systems, chronic exposure to drinking water containing these compounds is an important concern that needs more attention, Otten said.
When cyanobacteria bloom, it is often at the cost of neighboring species such as fish or other phytoplankton.
Some researchers have suggested that fish and shellfish from waters contaminated with cyanobacteria blooms may be one way that people ingest BMAA.
Caller et al. [28] shows a statistically significant 2.3-fold increased incidence of ALS in subjects residing within 0.5 miles of a New Hampshire lake that experienced cyanobacteria blooms.
Vanessa Rose, a WSU Vancouver student in environmental and natural resource sciences, whose research examines the interactive effects of elevated nutrient levels and zooplankton grazing on cyanobacteria blooms in the Columbia River and freshwater lakes and reservoirs across the Pacific Northwest.
This article notes meeting between NH state environmental officials and Barrington residents and stakeholders discussing what can be done about the ongoing cyanobacteria blooms in Nippo Lake which forced the lake to be closed.
It was cyanobacteria blooms in Lake Erie that last year required shutting down the water supply in Toledo, Ohio.
Brand has spent a lot of time at sea over the past 15 years studying cyanobacteria blooms.
Now, a study carried out by scientists from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and other European centres — including CEDEX — reveals that 23 % of lakes and reservoirs in Spain exceed the first level established by the WHO, which could lead to cyanobacteria blooms in some of them.
Based on the link between ALS and the neurotoxin in other parts of the world, Stommel and his colleagues hypothesize that the lake's cyanobacteria blooms could be a factor.
Most strikingly, they discovered that living within 18 miles of a lake with high levels of dissolved nitrogen — a pollutant from fertilizer and sewage that feeds algae and cyanobacteria blooms — raised the odds of belonging to an ALS hot spot by 167 percent.