Harmful algae take advantage of global warming

We often see the blue scum hovering above the water of the reservoirs, it may even cover your favorite fishing ponds or even appear in your aquarium. Scum that is blue-green algae cyanobacteria. According to an article published in the April 4 issue of Science, blue cyanobacteria particularly favor the harsh weather patterns associated with global warming.

Professor Hans Paerl (Chapel Hill Marine Science Research Institute, University of North Carolina), co-author of the paper named the blue cyanobacteria as 'lake cockroach'. They are everywhere and very difficult to remove. When the sun rises, they don't even focus on one place but still there, continuing to multiply; there are places where the algae are even three feet thick.

This algae has been linked to many deadly skin diseases, neurological diseases, digestion and liver disease. In the United States alone, it has cost millions of dollars to handle urban water systems. Although blue-green algae are more common in developing countries, it is also proliferating in important waters around the world; including Lake Victoria (Africa), Bantic Sea, Lake Erie, Lake Great Bay, Lake Okeechobee (Florida) and also the main reservoir of Raleigh (North Carolina).

Blue cyanobacteria (Photo: universe-new)

Professor Paerl and Professor Kenan, who specializes in marine and environmental sciences at the University of Arts and Sciences (University of North Carolina), said: 'This is a global issue.'

Professor Paerl along with Professor Jef Huisman (University of Amsterdam - Netherlands) explained this in Science: 'We have long believed that nutritional losses have promoted the development of cyanobacteria. Now scientists have been able to find two related factors: temperature and global warming. ' Paerl said: 'As the temperature rises, they are more prolific.'

This algae also grows rapidly in wet surfaces in areas with periodic repeated floods such as the US Midwest. When there are droughts like the southeastern United States today, other algae and other aquatic organisms die. The cyanobacteria alone is still waiting and waiting for an outbreak.

Warmer weather also causes blue-green algae to have a longer growing season. So they can grow in the northern waters that they could not survive because they were too cold. The blue-green algae discovered for the first time in Southern Europe in the 1930s is now in its heyday in northern Germany. Algae in Florida are also thriving in the southeastern United States. A number of other species have also recently appeared in the north like Montana and throughout Canada.

Fish and other aquatic species as well as plants have very little chance of surviving cyanobacteria. They are too much to cover the surface of the lake, blocking the light of the plants that live in the water, which is the food of fish. Fish often avoid cyanbacteria so they don't have food. When cyanobacteria die, they sink to the bottom of the lake. When decomposed, the oxygen source is seriously degraded.

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, is the first plant on Earth to produce oxygen.

Paerl said: 'It's funny because without blue-green algae, we could not be present in the world. Animals need to use the oxygen that blue-green algae produce. ' However, they are now threatening the health and occupation of people who depend on invaded drinking water, who have income from fishing or leisure activities.

Professor Paerl predicts that blue cyanobacteria will be the last extinct species after cockroaches are no longer on Earth, although they appear first.