ALGAE BLOOMING AND BOOMING

 

   Not much is blooming here in Ontario, but apparently you will find considerable blooming in Mexico - on the water. If you were thinking about heading there to escape our cold spring, you might want to consider the Pacific side. Here is an Associated Press headline from April 30: “Mexican Authorities Say the Problem of Foul-smelling Seaweed-like Algae on the Country's Caribbean Coast Beaches is “Alarming.” Note that even they find it "Alarming." If we just wait a few more weeks we will be able to see blooms closer to home on Lake Erie. 

It's Not the First Time!

  In recent years there have been many sargassum surges in the Caribbean and other oily ones in the Gulf of Mexico. Another recent headline indicated that algae pollution is not a new thing. Here it is. You think we would have learned by now. "Toxic Algae Plagued Ancient Maya Civilization," Rebecca Dzombak, Scientific American, April 1, 2022.  The article is not an "April Fools' " joke. The study on which it is based is found below.

  I just posted about pollution problems on Lake Superior and, unfortunately, about many more. See for example: "Flotsam and Jetsam," "Leaking Oil," and "Polluted Rivers." 

Source: 
  The Scientific American article is based on this research: "Harmful Algal Blooms and Cyanotoxins in Lake Amatitlán, Guatemala, Coincided with Ancient Maya Occupation in the Watershed," Matthew Neal Waters, et al., PNAS, Nov. 22, 2021.

Significance
"Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are dense populations of algae and/or cyanobacteria that can harm aquatic ecosystems by reducing water column oxygen and producing toxins. Whereas HABs are well documented in modern lakes, there has been little research on HABs associated with ancient societies. We inferred the magnitude of past HABs using a sediment core from Lake Amatitlán, Guatemala, which hosted large, prehistoric Maya populations in its watershed and currently experiences toxic HABs. About 1,000 y ago, ancient Maya in the area experienced periods of intense HABs and cyanotoxin concentrations in the lake, which rivaled the degraded conditions in the water body today. Human-associated HABs have affected both modern and ancient societies and deserve attention when exploring past human–environment interactions.