An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Waterloo argues more must be done to protect lakes in Ontario as climate change appears to be contributing to more frequent and more widespread algal blooms.
The team’s supervisor, Dr. Nandita Basu, a professor jointly appointed to the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo, summarized the research in a column published by The Conversation.
The article was co-written by Nancy Goucher, a knowledge mobilization specialist at the Water Institute at Waterloo.
“While algal blooms are an annual occurrence in places like the western basin of Lake Erie and parts of Lake Ontario, research suggests that they will appear more frequently in both small and large lakes across the province,” Basu and Goucher wrote.
“This is concerning because algal blooms can negatively impact the environment, human health and the economy.”