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A Trip to the Beach:

Untangling the Mystery of Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes
by
Susan E. Gass, Environmental Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Laurie S. Eberhardt, Department of Biology, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
modified by
Virginie Rolland, Biological Sciences, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR

Part I – The Problem

Matt and Flora are college sophomores studying biology who had met in their freshman biology lab. Matt had
invited Flora up to his summer cottage on Lake Michigan to spend a week with his family and was excited to
show her the beautiful beach. He hadn’t been to the cottage in a couple of years because he had been working in the
city to save up money for college. After arriving on a hot August evening, they decided to go straight out to the
beach and chatted as they walked along the path.
“I can’t wait for you to see the beach. I’ve been walking and swimming here since before I can remember. It
even inspired me to study biology,” Matt explained.
“It sounds really beautiful. Maybe we can take a dip in the lake to cool down after the long drive,” said Flora.
When they arrived, there was a bad smell in the air and there were piles of brown goop along the water’s edge.
This wasn’t how Matt remembered the beach.
“What’s that lined up along the shore? And that smell! Do you think there’s been a sewage leak?” Flora asked.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think we should stick around to find out. Let’s go back to the cottage and ask my
parents if they know what’s going on,” Matt replied.
When they got back to the cottage, Matt’s parents told them that, for the past two years, large quantities of green
algae had washed up on the beach. The rotting algae formed stinking clumps along the shore. Fewer tourists
had been coming to visit the area since the beach was so unpleasant when this happened. Their neighbors were
worried about the impact on the value of their lake property.
“I wonder what’s going on?” Matt asked.

“I think we should find out,” Flora replied.

“My Aunt Janet works for the Department of Natural Resources. I’m going to send her an email and ask if she
knows anything about this,” said Flora.
“Great idea. I’m so sorry, Flora, that wasn’t the romantic walk I had in mind,” said Matt.

Questions
1. What could have caused a recent increase in the amount of algae washing up on the beach? Brainstorm a list of
possibilities.
- It could possibly come from dead animals that die in the waters

- An increase of carbon dioxide

- The temperature changes due to global warming

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- SCIENCE

2. Choose one of your ideas from the above list and write a testable hypothesis. Describe the data that you
would need to test each hypothesis. (Remember that a testable hypothesis is a falsifiable statement that
could explain an observation. For example, when Matt and Flora see the brown piles, they think it might
be fecal material. Their testable hypothesis would be that if there had been a recent sewage leak, then it
could have resulted in the foul smell and rotting piles. They immediately falsify this hypothesis when they
find out from Matt’s parents that the piles are made up of algae and that they have been forming for
several years.)

If the amount of carbon dioxide increase in the area, then the increase of algae will also increase.

Part II – Could It Be Phosphorus?

Flora received an email response from her Aunt Janet.
Hi Flo,
Great to hear from you. Yes, the algae in question are called Cladophora
glomerata. This species of algae grows on rocks just out in the water along
the shore and has had a long history here in the Great Lakes, but has recently
become a problem (again) for many beaches across the basin. Back in the 1960s
and ’70s, a large increase in phosphorus pollution in the Great Lakes caused
the algal growth to proliferate. Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient for algae
in freshwater ecosystems. In the 1970s, laws were put in place to reduce the
phosphorus inputs and the problem all but disappeared.
I need to run—meeting in 5 mins. More later.
Love Aunt Janet
Since Matt and Flora had internet access at the cottage, they decided to investigate further.
“Maybe there’s another source of phosphorus pollution in our lake?” suggested Matt.
“Yeah, good idea. Let’s see if we can find any data on recent phosphorus levels,” said
Flora.

Question
3. Examine the figure below and predict what the data would look like if phosphorus in Lake Michigan is the
cause of the recent excessive growth (bloom) in algae.
If more phosphorus was added to Lake Michigan, then the amount of phosphorus in the lake will
have an increasing amount.

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Figure 1. Total phosphorus entering Lake Michigan. (Redrawn with data from Madenjian et al., 2002.)

Part III – More about Algae

“So if it’s not phosphorus then what could it be?”

asked Matt.
“We know that algal growth is limited by light
so maybe something is going on there. Let’s look
into this and see what we find,” said Flora.
Flora found out that the Great Lakes also have
phytoplankton, single-celled algae that float
around in water and can affect water clarity. She
followed this lead and found some data
on what was happening with phytoplankton in the Figure 2. Springtime primary production in southern Lake Michigan has
lake (see Figure 2). declined since the mid-1990s. Bars represent average amount of
phytoplankton (measured in mg carbon/m2/day) in repeated samples with
lines above bars showing variation in the data (Fahnenstiel et al. 2010).

Question
4. Describe in words what has happened to phytoplankton in Lake Michigan.
The phytoplankton in Lake Michigan declined.

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Matt found a report describing 20 years of data on SCIENCE
the water clarity of the lake. The data came from
Secchi disk readings reported from a school ship
program in Lake Michigan. A Secchi disk is a circle
divided into alternating black and white quarters
(Figure 3). As the disk is lowered into the lake water,
the depth at which the distinction between the black
and white quarters can no longer be made is
recorded, indicating the clarity or absence of
phytoplankton. In the first years of the school ship
program in Grand Traverse Bay, the Secchi disk could Figure 3. Secchi disk being lowered into water to measure clarity.
be seen down to about 6–8 m. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/usace_ albuquerque/5999717664)

Questions
5. Given Flora’s finding, fill in the missing data on the axes of Figure 4 below to depict the data Matt found.

Figure 4. Secchi disk depths taken from Lower West Arm Grand Traverse Bay during a school science ship program
“Inland Seas” in Sutton’s Bay, Michigan.

6. What factors in the environment would make one kind of alga increase while another decreases?
- A predator for a specific alga
- Temperature change causes one alga to die

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Part IV – The Rest of the Story SCIENCE

As Matt and Flora were looking over the information that they had found and trying to make sense of it all,
Flora received another email from Aunt Janet:
Hi Flo,
I wanted to follow up on your question. We’ve been working on some research
connecting the Cladophora blooms with the invasion of zebra and quagga mussels in
the lakes. I’ve attached some maps showing the invasions….

Figure 5. Zebra mussel and quagga mussel densities in Lake Michigan. Source: Figure 36 from Thunder Bay National Marine
Sanctuary 2013 Condition Report, http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/condition/tbnms/pressures.html.

It turns out that the mussels are so efficient at filter feeding they have
removed enough phytoplankton from the lake system to significantly increase the
water clarity of the lake, allowing more light in for the Cladophora. The mussels
also may be recycling phosphorus in the water and shifting it from the water
column down to the lake bed, thus directly feeding the Cladophora. There is still
a
lot more research to be done to fully understand this story but we’re making
headway.
Flo, I hope this info helps answer your question. You and Matt should come out
with me on my next field trip!
Love, Aunt Janet

Question
7. Examine the information about these two species of filter feeding mussels. Return to Question 6 and reconsider
using this new information.

- Increase of light
-

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PART V - Competition

In part IV, Flo learned that Zebra mussels grew increasingly abundant and then decreased while Quagga mussels
spread everywhere in Lake Michigan (Figure 5). Both mussels were introduced unintentionally as the mussels
attach to boats coming from other parts of the world.
“Zebra mussels were doing really well. I wonder how the arrival of Quagga made them decline,” thought Flo out
loud.
“They must be competing for something and Quagga is better at it,” suggested Matt.
“Or maybe Quagga reproduces faster?” counteracts Flo.

Question
8. If Quagga mussels are outcompeting Zebra mussels, what do you think Quagga mussels could be better at?
Producing more

Flo does a little search and finds these two elements:

Figure 7. Mean number of byssal threads of zebra and

Figure 6. Mean seasonal filtration rates ± SE (mL/h) of 20-mm
quagga mussels that remained attached at water velocities of
quagga and zebra mussels. Sample size given above bars
0, 50, 100 and 180 cm s–1. Error bars represent variation and
(Diggins 2001, Journal of Great Lakes Research).
numbers above bars are sample sizes. (Peyer et al. 2009,
Journal of Experimental Biology)

Question
9. Based on Flo’s finding, what makes Quagga mussels a stronger competitor over Zebra mussels?
They are able to filter their food better than zebra mussels.

PART VI – All the pieces of the ecosystem puzzle come together

Diporeia is a small shrimp-like species that serves as a food source for whitefish. As a filter feeder like mussels,
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Diporeia consumes phytoplankton. SCIENCE

Question
10. Using this information and all information gathered in previous parts,
a. Draw a food web in the space provided below, with all organisms mentioned in this activity, namely whitefish,
diporeia, phytoplankton, cladophora, zebra mussels, and quagga mussels.
b. Identify trophic levels by drawing color-coded rectangles: orange around producer(s), blue around primary
consumers, and pink or red around secondary consumers.
c. On your food web, add the two abiotic factors.

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In an article written by Carolyn Betz (University of Wisconsin-Madison) in 2009, Flo discovers that Diporeia is no
longer abundant in Lake Michigan (Figures 8-9) and that whitefish are “growing to less than half of their
expected size”. Betz hypothesizes that Quagga are the reason for these two observations.

Figure 9. Adult Diporeia, a rice grain-sized crustacean in the

same biological class as krill and shrimp. They have served
as an important food source for a variety of fish throughout
the Great Lakes. (Tomas Hook)
Figure 8. Decline of populations of Diporeia have precipitously
declined since the mid-1990s. Red crosses in the map denote
sampling sites. (Thomas Nalepa, Great Lakes Environmental
Research Laboratory)

Question
11. Explain how Quagga could have caused the disappearance of Diporeia and the reduced size of whitefish.
They are an important food source for the Quagga

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Additional questions
12. In part II, we learn that phosphorus is a limiting nutrient for the growth of algae (and phytoplankton). We also
learn from Flo’s aunt that phosphorus can be considered a pollutant when present in excess. What do you think could
be a source of phosphorus? Would phosphorus then be a point or non-point source pollution?
SOURCE:

POINT or NON-POINT: nonpoint

13. Is Lake Michigan a natural or artificial ecosystem? What specific aquatic life zone is it?
ARTIFICIAL or NATURAL: Natural

AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM TYPE: Lentic

14. List endangered/threatened and invasive species involved in this activity

ENDANGERED/THREATENED:

INVASIVE: zebra, quagga mussels, diporeia, phytoplankton

15. List all biotic factors and abiotic factors involved in the scenario.
BIOTIC FACTORS: zebra and quagga mussles, whitefish, diporeia, phytoplankton

ABIOTIC FACTORS: water

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