GAHHHH! AAHHHHH! AAAAAAHHHH! PANIC! PANIC! Doom! Gloom. DOOO....*cough cough* hold on while I drink a glass of water...okay...where was I? Oh yes! OOOOOOOM!!!!
The world is coming to an end. They say the end of the world is in May some time. Or maybe it's June. I don't know.
Scientists estimate that since the mid-1990s the lakes' biomass of fish has dropped by about 95%, says Mary Anne Evans, an ecosystem ecologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Scientists have linked that decline to a 99% loss of the tiny shrimp-like invertebrates that fish thrive on. These invertebrates in turn feed on algae, she explains.
Alls I know is I'm sitting here eating some withered lettuce and reading about a decline in algae on the Great Lakes...and that's lead to a 95% decrease in fish biomass in the Great Lakes since the 1990s. And yes, you read that number right...a 95% decrease in fish biomass in the Great Lakes since the 1990s.
Mining data on silica concentrations collected over the past 30 years, Evans and her colleagues determined that algal production was about 80% lower in 2008 than in the 1980s and 1990s.
Now... if you've followed my other Great Lakes posts, you're probably thinking something like this:
"But Muskegon Critic...I thought you said there was a destructive over-abundance of algae in the Great Lakes...and NOW you say there's too little?!?! What's up with that?"
Funny story: as it turns out, it's all about location, right? While the far offshore regions are depleted of algae, the coastal areas are seeing a plague of algae.
But Bill Taylor, a limnologist at the University of Waterloo thinks that "the mussels are altering lake productivity not only by filtering algae, but also by changing the way nutrients are distributed in the lake." While the offshore parts of the lakes are losing their algae, the nearshore areas are plagued with nuisance algal blooms fed by high levels of phosphorus. Some studies suggest the mussels may have concentrated phosphorus in the nearshore, thereby depriving the offshore of an element critical to algal growth, he says.
A theory I had heard from a speaker on invasive species suggested it worked like this:
Mussels, which are in the shallower coastal regions of the Great Lakes, filter every damn thing out of the water on a consistent ongoing basis --> So all the phosphorus in the Great Lakes gets concentrated in their bodies --> Then they die and release concentrated and massive amounts of phosphorous near the coastal areas --> and cause algae blooms along the coasts because algae LOVES phosphorous...
Oh but it's not just ANY algae...oh no...it's the algae that the mussels don't eat. The toxic stuff. So what you get is TOXIC algae blooms near the coastal areas. MMMMM...
And meanwhile the rest of the lake is completely sucked dry of nutrients.
On the bright side, maybe there won't be anything for the Asian carps to eat if they ever make it into the Great Lakes.
By the way...if you haven't figured it out yet, the Great Lakes are severly managed day in and day out to keep them from falling into a self destructive abyss so they have the semblance of a balanced eco-system and can marginally sustain native species.
Yeah...it's sort of a warning shot to anybody who gives a shit about the oceans, because I promise you...the plight of the Great Lakes is the plight of the oceans in microcosm. Very soon, if we don't pull our heads out of our asses, the Oceans will no longer be self sustaining eco-systems. They will be MANAGED ecosystems and every other year some new threat will come along that will potentially topple them into a downward spiral.