{"id":6292,"date":"2011-10-17T02:00:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blitransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:20:50","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T19:20:50","slug":"feast-and-famine-in-the-great-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/2011\/10\/17\/feast-and-famine-in-the-great-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Feast and Famine in the Great Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The ecology of the Great Lakes has been struggling for many years.\u00a0 Parts of them are dead and others are dying.\u00a0 \u201cFeast and Famine in the Great Lakes\u201d examines the reasons why.<\/p>\n

A new report sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, \u201cFeast and Famine in the Great Lakes:\u00a0 How Nutrients and Invasive Species Interact to Overwhelm the Coasts and Starve Offshore Waters\u201d, looks at two major contributors to the ecological problems facing the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

Excess Phosphorus<\/h3>\n

The first major contributor is excess nutrients, particularly phosphorus.\u00a0 The excess nutrients come mainly from runoff from industrial agriculture.<\/p>\n

Phosphorus feeds algae, causing the toxic algal blooms<\/a> that shut down parts of the lakes to recreation every year.\u00a0 The algal blooms, in turn, use up the oxygen in the water, suffocating other animals and plants.<\/p>\n

Invasive Species<\/h3>\n

The second major contributor is invasive species.\u00a0 The zebra mussel is famous for clogging intake and outflow pipes of industry, municipalities, and recreational boaters.<\/p>\n

The zebra mussel also has a talent for concentrating nutrients in near shore waters, thus leaving little for fish in deeper waters to feed on.<\/p>\n

Solutions<\/h3>\n

When the problems of excess nutrients in the Great Lakes were first understood in the mid-1900s, people came together and cleaned up.\u00a0 The Clean Water Act and other environmental legislation of the 1960s were part of the solution.<\/p>\n

These solutions concentrated on cleaning up point sources \u2013 sewage treatment facilities, for example \u2013 and were largely successful.\u00a0 By the 1990s, many of the ecosystems of the Great Lakes had recovered significantly.\u00a0 There are still improvements to be made in cleaning up point sources and they must continue.<\/p>\n

Additional solutions will have to look at how to decrease or prevent runoff from industrial farms.\u00a0 Strengthening soil conservation efforts and increasing buffer zones between row crops and water are just two of the many suggestions found in the report.<\/p>\n

Invasive species are a tougher problem.\u00a0 After all, they wouldn\u2019t be invasive if they were easy to control.\u00a0 The report has some ideas that are fairly complicated (but doable) and I wouldn\u2019t do them justice trying to fit them in a small article.\u00a0 \u201cFeast and Famine<\/a>\u201d is 44 pages long and available for free online.<\/p>\n

What Can You Do?<\/h3>\n

Homes and lawns account for a very small portion of the problem of the Great Lakes.\u00a0 However, every little bit helps.\u00a0 \u201cFeast and Famine\u201d has these helpful tips:<\/p>\n