We are seeing a global increase in the frequency and severity of Algal blooms

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/pictures/130423-extreme-algae-bloom-fertilizer-lake-erie-science/

Pea Soup

Photograph from China Daily/Reuters

A boy swims in algae-covered waters off the coast of Qingdao, China (map) in 2011—just one of the places around the world where algae blooms are a growing problem. (Related pictures: "Photos: Thick Green Algae Chokes Beach—Swimmers Dive In.")

With an estimated seven billion people and counting, the world's population will only get hungrier. The advent of fertilizers and high-yield crops have helped growers keep pace with the demand for food.

But there's an unintended crop flourishing around the world that is not always so beneficial. Microscopic, plantlike organisms called algae thrive on the excess nutrients—like nitrogen and phosphorus—found in fertilizers that make their way from backyards and fields, producing blooms that can sometimes be seen from space.

Combined with warming temperatures and water circulation patterns, coastal areas such as Qingdao, the Gulf of Mexico, and the U.S. West Coast—as well as freshwater systems like the Great Lakes—are no strangers to enormous algae blooms that can turn the water green or red. (Related: "Harmful Algae Blooms Plague Lake Erie Again.")

Some of these blooms can create dead zones, or areas that are deprived of oxygen, in the water. And some algal species can also produce toxins that wreak havoc on human livers and neurological functions and cause seizures in marine mammals. (Related: "Sea Lion Seizures May Result From Toxic Algae.")

"There's no question in my mind that we are seeing a global increase in the frequency and severity of these [blooms]," said David Caron, a researcher at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles who studies harmful algal blooms.

—Jane J. Lee

Published April 23, 2013

Algae and fish farm link prospects on global science agenda

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/8580137/Algae-and-fish-farm-link-prospects-on-global-science-agenda
Algae and fish farm link prospects on global science agenda

PENNY WARDLE

Some of the best scientific minds in the world will this week focus on exploring any potential link between harmful algal blooms and fish farms.

The issue has been put on the agenda of an international algal bloom conference in Paris by senior scientist Lincoln MacKenzie, from Nelson research organisation Cawthron, who described it as a high priority.

His call comes as a toxic algal bloom has frozen the shellfish industry in Queen Charlotte Sound and in Tory Channel, where New Zealand King Salmon operates its Clay Point and Te Pangu Bay fish farms.

The scientists attending the Paris conference are part of the Geohab programme supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

On March 23, the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board warned against eating kina, mussels, pipi, tuatua, oysters and cockles harvested from Queen Charlotte Sound and Tory Channel.

Mussel companies voluntarily stopped harvesting in these areas from March 11.

The blooms have no effect on fish, including farmed salmon.

The Alexandrium catenella algae causing the problem was first found at the head of Opua Bay two or three years ago. However, Mr MacKenzie confirmed cysts had been present in sediment on the sea floor for at least 10 years and possibly a lot longer.

Opponents of New Zealand King Salmon's plans to build new fish farms in the Marlborough Sounds argued at an EPA hearing in Blenheim last year that waste from fish farms could increase the frequency and extent of algal blooms.

However, Mr MacKenzie said nothing he had seen suggested a connection between salmon farms and the the algal bloom in Tory Channel. The major source of nutrition for algae was natural oceanic nitrogen.

He went on to say nitrogen levels in the sea were similar from year to year but this toxic bloom was new.People tended to link harmful blooms and fish farming but in most cases he knew of, good evidence did not exist, Mr MacKenzie said.

Cawthron was asking for scientists around the world to work together on the issue because a better understanding of fish farm impacts on water quality and biology would help minimise effects on the environment.

Lake Okeechobee Performance Measure Diatom / Cyanobacteria Ratio

Lake Okeechobee Performance Measure Diatom/Cyanobacteria Ratio

http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/recover/recover_docs/et/lo_pm_cyano-diatom.pdf


1.0 Desired Restoration Condition

The target is to substantially reduce the dominance of cyanobacteria relative to diatoms. This can be expressed as a numeric target of having a long-term pelagic ratio of biovolume (diatoms: cyanobacteria) greater than 1.5:1.


2.0 Justification
Studies of phytoplankton taxonomic structure of Lake Okeechobee in the 1970s indicated that the community was dominated by diatoms; today the community is dominated by pollution-tolerant bloom-forming cyanobacteria (Havens et al. 1996). The five-year mean diatom to cyanobacteria ratio for 2000-2005 was 0.63 (SFER, 2006).

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This is one of the few projects that identify diatoms as the solution to improving water quality of a lake.

Dead Zone map of the world - 1969, 1989 and 2009

http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/archives/2010/diaz_dead_zone_report.php

Global Hypoxia 1969: Global pattern of coastal hypoxia in 1989. Each red dot represents a documented case related to human activities. Use scroll arrows to compare with similar data from 2009 and 1969.

Diaz contributes to White House "dead zone" report

by David Malmquist |  September 3, 2010

Research by Professor Bob Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science lies at the heart of a new White House report on the growing problem of low-oxygen marine "dead zones." The report, released today to Congress and the public by the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy, notes that low oxygen dead zones now affect nearly half of the 647 U.S. waterways assessed for the report, up from 38 percent reported in the 1980s.

 Diaz was lead author for the report's chapters on the science, economics, and societal impacts of marine dead zones.  He was one of  only 3 academic researchers involved in the report's development.

The report is the final of 5 reports mandated by Congress in the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Amendments Act of 2004 and isavailable online through the White House Office of Ocean Science & Technology.

How’s the algae at Lake Erie?

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/sports/erie-fishing-looks-good-but-watch-out-for-the-alga/nW7Mr/?goback=%2Egmp_3809234%2Egde_3809234_member_227761421

Erie fishing looks good, but watch out for the algae

By Jim Morris

People used to ask me, “How’s the fishing at Lake Erie?”

Not anymore.

Now they ask, “How’s the algae at Lake Erie?

“I have actually heard some people say they think the algae helps attract walleyes,” said Jeff Tyson, Lake Erie program administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “We get mixed reactions, though. Other people don’t like pulling fish through the algae blooms.”

Tyson says scientists see the algae bloom tied to the weather.

“When we have a wet spring, March through June, and loading from the Maumee River (spreading of nutrients from runoff), we can expect algae bloom,” he said. “In 1911 we had record precipitation and that really brought on the algae bloom, but last year it was very dry and we had very little,” he said.

Unfortunately, all the snow and rain has made for wet conditions this spring.

As far as walleye fishing goes, anglers can expect another good year, because there are plenty of fish available from good hatches in 2007 and 2010. And the record hatch of 2003 is still contributing in a big way.

“We figured last year about 35 percent of the walleyes in the lake came from the 2003 class,” Tyson said.

Those 10-year-old fish are now monsters – 30 to 35 inches in length. That means plenty of folks will be catching big fish, more than big enough to earn a “Fish Ohio” pin.

The ’07 fish are 24 inches or more and the ’10 fish are 15 inches and up, making them legal keepers.

Yellow perch fishing is also expected to be good this year. But as it has been in recent years, the further east you go to fish, the larger and more plentiful the perch.

“The catch rate was up last year over 2011,” Tyson said. “It’s holding pretty steady at about 3.5 fish per person, per hour.

“But we’d like to see some better hatches in the Western Basin, There were actually some good hatches in the Central Basin last year and that’s where we’re seeing more stability.”

Although the walleye and perch fishing are considered very good, perhaps the most success in Lake Erie fish management has come with smallmouth bass.

“The catch rate for smallmouth bass in 2012 was the highest we’ve see in at least a decade,” Tyson observed. “It’s been trending up. We have had some good hatches.”

He said the closed season for keeping bass during May and June that was imposed several years ago seems to have improved the fishery.

Generally, the best bass fishing has been around the reefs and the islands, but now bass are showing up along the shore in the main lake – but they aren’t smallmouth. For years, largemouth bass have been caught in the rivers and around marinas and docks, but now they seem to be branching out.

“The University of Toledo has been conducting a near-shore assessment survey over the past two years. We’re seeing a lot of largemouth bass, so it’s a developing fishery and that’s kind of interesting,” Tyson said.

Quotas set: The Lake Erie quotas for yellow perch and walleye have been set. Ohio’s total allowable catch for walleyes is 1.715 million. Last year an estimated 920,000 were caught in Ohio waters. The perch quota is 4.8 million pounds. About 3.5 million pounds were caught in Ohio in 2012.

Tyson said those numbers indicate there will be no change in bag limits for either species this year. The walleye bag limit is four until May 1, then six until March 1, 2014. Perch limits remain as 30 lakewide.

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How’s the algae at Lake Erie ?

Wrong questions lead to wrong answers.

The right question to ask is -
How are the Diatoms in Lake Erie ?

Icelandic volcano's ash led to more CO2 being absorbed by oceans

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1416&cookieConsent=A

The Icelandic volcano's ash plume that caused huge air travel disruption across Europe in 2010 resulted in the oceans absorbing more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than usual, say scientists.

They found that particles from the ash cloud that fell into the ocean provided microscope plants, called phytoplankton, with a nutrient boost in the form of iron. Phytoplankton are important as they absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere. In fact, while phytoplankton represent just two per cent of all plant matter on Earth, they account for half of all CO₂ absorption from the atmosphere.

'This had never been done, no one has ever made any at-sea in-situ measurements during an eruption,' explains Professor Eric Achterberg, from the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, lead researcher on the study.

In the oceans south of Iceland there isn't usually enough iron for phytoplankton to bloom for more than a few weeks before it runs out. This latest study reveals that the volcanic ash column supplied enough iron that the phytoplankton were able to bloom for longer, and absorb more CO₂ than they would typically have been able to.

'In normal years the iron levels are very low in the Iceland basin as the system runs out of this nutrient during the annual spring bloom. But in 2010 the iron supply was so high that demands were met. But then the phytoplankton stripped the nitrogen out of the surface waters so they became limited by that instead,' says Achterberg.

The research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, found even with the added iron from the volcano and the longer blooming period, the phytoplankton were only able to absorb about 15-20 per cent more CO₂ than in other years before the nitrogen in the water ran out.

Red tide could become the norm

http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2013-02-11/Red-tide-could-become-the-norm#.URr30x137Ss

Red tide could become the norm

Story Created: Feb 11, 2013 at 11:35 PM America/New_York

SANIBEL, FL--If you have been to the beach recently, chances are you've seen or felt the recent effects of Red Tide. Scientists say 2012 was a year with nearly non-stop cases and now wildlife experts and biologists are saying the problem is getting much worse.

This weekend, high concentrations of Red Tide were reported near Lighthouse Beach and last week extreme levels around Sanibel were reported.

A trip to the beach should be relaxing unless it's plagued with red tide.

"Irritation inside my chest, just itchy," said tourist Jane Messmer.

The dead fish, potent smell and respiratory irritation is proving to be a common thing across southwest Florida. Biologist Richard Bartleson blames increasing amounts of nutrients making their way in to the gulf which feeds the red tide blooms.

"In the past it might, the normal red tide might start in November and last a few months," said biologist RichardBartleson.

But recently, Bartleson says we have been affected by Red Tide on and off now for five straight months and each red tide bloom is lasting longer than usual.

With the growing population and infrastructure, more water runoff containing nutrients is washing to the gulf.

"The more nutrients you have, the longer the blooms can last and thats right, more normal now," said Bartleson.

A problem putting a damper on many of the daily activities for the thousands of tourists who flock to our area.

"We rented a boat for 8 hours and we came back after 6 because what we planned to do we couldn't do because of the dead fish," said Messmer.

The wildlife is also dramatically affected. In 2012, the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) in Sanibel says they saw 439 animals like birds and sea turtles who where poisoned by red tide and that's 168 more than 2011.

"For us it is starting to become an overwhelming problem for us to where sometimes I don't have enough money and enough staff," said Dr. Heather Barron with CROW

Animal doctors are also seeing a wider variety of birds and wildlife that are being affected and scientists say its getting harder to find out what we can do prevent more red tide,in part,  because of the lack of funding.