The goop that's 'jellifying' our lakes

Holopedium mass. Credit: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry/Queen's University

Saturday, November 22, 2014, 2:06 PM - Falling calcium levels in North America's softwater lakes could lead to a kind of "jellification," according to new research.

Whether you call it that, or "aquatic osteoporosis" (as the Queen's Gazette did), the result has been an increase in a kind of micro-organisms called holopedium, whose body mass is increased by a jelly capsule on its back. 

That's at the expense of the water flea daphnia, a competitor species that can't thrive in lower-calcium environments.

Holopedium with jelly capsule. Image credit: Ian Gardiner/E-Fauna BC/Queen's University

The result, say researchers at Queen's University, is larger numbers of holopedium, which could not only upset the balance of lakewater food chains - holopedium is not as nutrient rich as daphnia - but also clog water intakes when in large enough numbers (see the clump of them in the picture up top).

"This is likely a long-term effect of acid rains on forest soils, logging, and forest regrowth," Queen's University Prof. John Smol told the Queen's Gazette.

Smol said many of the lakes studied by the researchers had already passed 'critical thresholds.'

"We have been reduced to the role of spectator, as these changes continue to unfold," he said. "Once again we see there are many unexpected consequences of our actions, most of which are negative."

The researchers drew their conclusion be examining fossils in lake sediment dating back as much as 150 years.

The research was published last week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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