Pristine Minnesota Lakes Probed for Mysterious Algae Bloom

A mysterious algae bloom has developed in boundaries and scientists are investigating pristine Minnesota lakes because of the occurrence.

Adam Heathcote has spent more than 15 years researching blue-green algae blooms, spending a significant amount of time in lakes in southern Minnesota and Iowa that are surrounded by farms and other human development and frequently experience severe algae blooms.

He paddled into Burnt and Smoke Lakes, two small lakes off Sawbill Lake, a well-known BWCA entry point located north of Tofte, Minnesota, but that wasn't enough to prepare him for what he saw there last month.

Sawbill Lake is a popular BWCA entry point.

The Unexpected Algae Bloom

Heathcote, a director from the St. Croix Watershed Research Station's Department of Water and Climate Change, said that the lake, which has two portages that go into the Boundary Waters, had an algal bloom that was as bad as anything he had ever seen in Iowa during his Ph.D. studies.

The bloom was like thick, neon-green, and neon-blue paint, with lake-wide coverage, not just in a small, isolated bay, he continued, adding that he had never seen one to that extent.

When cyanobacteria take over the algae, which can sometimes produce toxins detrimental to people and animals, the situation becomes problematic.

But Lienne Sethna, a researcher who collaborated with Heathcote, claimed that they used a microscope to examine the algae discovered in the Boundary Waters.

They also discovered three cyanobacterial species that produce various toxin types.

According to Sethna, they are very concerned about it and hope that this study will help them address their concerns.

Pristine Minnesota Lakes

Both inside the wilderness area and close by, the researchers are examining a few of the state's purest, most pristine lakes.

They are attempting to determine the cause of the sudden change in the algae situation.

They also discovered cyanobacteria in Sawbill Lake, Elbow, and Finger Lakes, as well as along the Timber-Frear canoe route located in the Superior National Forest.

The levels of oxygen, nutrients, and algae are all being measured by scientists.

Because of prior reports of algae blooms there, they concentrated in part on Smoke and Burnt Lakes in Canada.

Shirley added that the locals have known about it for a very long time and have never reported any illnesses or other problems as a result of it.

However, they are happy that someone is looking into it, and they are eager to learn the results.

Two possible causes

For what causes blooms in these wild lakes, scientists have two theories.

One is that the lakes are getting warmer due to climate change, which makes it easier for algae at the lake's surface to access nutrients that have built up in the sediment.

Dust is the second theory. Researchers believe that atmospheric nutrient precipitation into lakes is contributing to these algae blooms.

According to Heathcote, numerous significant studies have examined the effects of dust in remote, high-alpine lakes in Colorado's Rocky Mountain foothills.

For the first time in Minnesota, Heathcote and his coworkers have installed a network of dry deposition monitors to gather and measure the nutrients that fall from the sky.

Heathcote believed the project aims to confirm that the increasing trend of toxic cyanobacteria blooms in northern Minnesota is likely caused by both atmospheric deposition and global warming.

Even though there has been a lot of study on algae blooms in places where there is clear evidence of human impact, researchers are still trying to understand the far more global factors that are causing them.

Heathcote claimed that they were unsure of what they would learn.

This study is among the first of its kind anywhere in the world and is truly state-of-the-art in terms of research. It is also a first for Minnesota, MPR News reported.