EMECO

Blooms Like it Hot

A recent study has suggested that global warming will bring conditions that favour harmful cyanobacterial blooms, which smother aquatic plants and deprive other aquatic organisms of sunlight.

Rising temperatures gave cyanobacteria a competitive advantage over other phytoplankton and provided them with a longer growth period. Global warming may also lead to more blooms by altering patterns of precipitation and drought, ultimately supplying the bacteria with more nutrients. Some cyanobacteria have already expanded their geographical ranges.

The study highlighted the need for more detailed studies of the population dynamics in cyanobacterial blooms, and the need for water managers to accommodate the effects of climate change in their strategies to combat the expansion of cynaobacterial blooms.

Although this study focussed on freshwater systems, other studies have pointed to similar cyanobacterial responses to the impacts of climate change in the open oceans

Sources:

Paerl H. W. and Huisman J. (2008) Blooms Like It Hot Science 320, pp. 57-58

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