Posted on July 9, 2013 by Dan O’Keefe, Michigan State University Extension Aquatic ecologists tend to avoid the term “weeds” when referring to macrophytes – the rooted aquatic plants that many swimmers and boaters disdain. These plants provide food for waterfowl and habitat for fish, but they can also play a critical role in maintaining
As algal blooms flourish on the edges of the Great Lakes, lake management bodies look to cut down the flow of nutrients into the water that feeds the algae. But, as a recent report by the International Joint Commission explains, not all parts of the lakes suffer from too many nutrients — in fact, the
The Charles River Watershed Association and local citizens have obtained funding to conduct large-scale mechanical harvesting to remove roughly 50 acres of water chestnut and other invasive weeds. The Charles River Lakes District in Massachusetts is a popular destination for canoeists, kayakers and rowers, but the pollution from stormwater runoff resulted in an increase in
Carter Lake is an old oxbow lake of the Missouri River and is now an urban lake shared by two different cities (Omaha, Nebraska and Carter Lake, Iowa), in two counties (Douglas and Pottawattamie) and two states (Nebraska and Iowa). A vital part of the area’s watershed, Carter Lake is a natural catch basin for
While invasive zebra mussels consume small plant-like organisms called phytoplankton, Michigan State University researchers discovered during a long-term study that zebra mussels can actually increase Microcystis, a type of phytoplankton known as “blue-green algae” or cyanobacteria, that forms harmful floating blooms. Zebra mussels can filter out the Microcystis with other particles, but then they spit