A boy swims in algae-covered waters off the coast of Qingdao, China in 2011—just one of the places around the world where algae blooms are a growing problem.
With an estimated seven billion
people and counting, the world's population will only get hungrier. The
advent of fertilizers and high-yield crops have helped growers keep pace with
the demand for food.
But there's an unintended crop flourishing around the world that is
not always so beneficial. Microscopic, plantlike organisms called algae thrive
on the excess nutrients—like nitrogen and phosphorus—found in fertilizers that
make their way from backyards and fields, producing blooms that can sometimes
be seen from space.
Combined with warming temperatures and water circulation patterns,
coastal areas such as Qingdao, the Gulf of Mexico, and the U.S. West Coast—as
well as freshwater
systems like the Great Lakes—are no
strangers to enormous algae blooms that can turn the water green or red.
Some of these blooms can create dead zones, or areas that are
deprived of oxygen, in the water. And some algal species can also produce
toxins that wreak havoc on human livers and neurological functions and cause
seizures in marine mammals. (Related: "Sea
Lion Seizures May Result From Toxic Algae.")
"There's no question in my mind that we are seeing a global
increase in the frequency and severity of these [blooms]," said David
Caron, a researcher at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los
Angeles who studies harmful algal blooms.
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