Warming temperatures could cause some lakes to change colors dramatically but unexpectedly. Blue lakes will be turning green or brown!
New research shows how climate change can affect the color of specific environments. In a warming world, lakes that were used to being calm and blue could instead turn green or brown. It is due to algae flourishing from warmer temperatures causing an increase in the amount of oxygen on the surface of these other-worldly bodies of water. With more oxygen, algae grow more extensively and bloom more quickly because, with more sunlight, they are better able to photosynthesize the food they need for growth than before when oxygen was scarce at the bottom of these lakes. The outcome will be brown or green waters.
Algae could thrive with more sunlight and turn the water green or brown. Lake Baikal in Siberia, the deepest lake in the world, will be one of the first to experience this. Baikal is a vast lake home to hundreds of endemic species like seals and many different types of fish. Another example is Lake Superior, which holds tons of commercial value for the fishing and tourism industries.
Scientists found that climate change could impact a lake’s ability to produce oxygen, which could cause these lakes to turn colors entirely, unlike what they are used to. In places like Lake Baikal, they will start deep and blue near the bottom but then green on top. The lakes affected by climate change will also experience dramatic changes in lake levels because of the warming temperatures changing evaporation patterns and rainfall.
The idea that lakes could turn colors is a familiar one. In 2013, the BBC ran a story titled “Algae ‘could turn oceans green in 30 years”. In the article, researchers found that the number of algae in the water will increase by 50%, producing more oxygen. Scientists estimate that this process will happen in 10-30 years. They also said, “It is worth noting that this will not happen immediately in large numbers, but over decades or centuries as the climate changes.”
The research was published online in 2014, in “Environmental Research Letters.” It was done by Sir David Attenborough, known for his BBC nature documentaries. The paper’s title was: “Climate change, global warming, oxygen, and the Vostok ice core.”
There are two types of algae: cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae that produce energy from sunlight, and green algae, which uses oxygen like land plants. There have been discoveries of green algae in ancient fossils.
The idea of a colored lake is not new. The Great Salt Lake in Utah used to be red from algae growth before increased water conservation. The withdrawal of contaminated water from the lake’s western shore removed nutrients that triggered an abundance of algae growth. Without these nutrients, the Great Salt Lake became clearer and bluer after this change in management. However, climate change and warming waters might cause colors to shift back to red from blue again because increased temperatures would remove oxygen from deeper waters, making algae grow more efficiently.
The effects of climate change on some very unique and beautiful lakes are hard to imagine. It’s important to remember that just because something results from increasing temperatures, this does not mean that it’s as simple as saying, “drought causes plants and animals to die.” Also, “drought causes plants and animals to die” could be said” if you look at the entire chain of circumstances and not just the warming temperature. The authors detail all these factors in the article linked below, which I recommend reading.
