The study in question has been carried out by a group of researchers at the Department of Biology at Lund University. The research team is specifically focusing on predictions regarding how our water resources will be like in the future, in terms of drinking water, recreation, fishing and biodiversity. They have now published findings on the impact of a warmer climate on lakes in the journal Nature Climate Change.
"The most interesting and unexpected result from the study is that the reaction to climate change will vary between lakes; this has been observed previously but has puzzled researchers. We have shown that the variation is dependent on what organisms are dominant in the lake", says Lars-Anders Hansson, Professor of Aquatic Ecology at Lund University.
In lakes without fish, a warmer climate will lead to clear water without algal blooms. However, the results will be different in lakes containing fish. There, the warmer climate will benefit the fish, which will eat up large quantities of crustaceans (zooplankton). These crustaceans keep the algae in check. When the number of crustaceans falls, the algae will be free to multiply, and algal blooms will increase. "Since most lakes close to humans contain fish and are also already eutrophicated, we can expect to have to deal with algal blooms even more in the future", says Lars-Anders Hansson....
A lake in Sweden, shot by Freestyle nl, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
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