Events

Join Itasca Waters and Minnesota Sea Grant in learning about how climate change plays a role in harmful algae blooms (HABs) as part of the Itasca Water Wisdom online webinar series, co-sponsored by MNSG.

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, present a complex management challenge in lakes because they can rapidly form dense surface scums, or blooms, that are difficult to predict. Under the right conditions and with the right types of cyanobacteria, cyanobacteria blooms can become harmful when certain cyanobacteria strains produce potent toxins that make people sick and can kill pets and wildlife. Worldwide, cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cHABs) are anticipated to become more prevalent, more frequent, and more severe under future climate and land use scenarios. While cHABs have long been known to occur in warm water, nutrient-rich lakes, such as those in southern Minnesota, their expansion into colder, low-nutrient lakes of northern Minnesota, including recent occurrences of cyanobacteria blooms in nearshore Lake Superior, signifies that cyanobacteria are already responding to global change.

In this talk, Christopher Filstrup, Ph.D., will discuss how cyanobacteria are well adapted to future climate conditions, what factors may be contributing to their expansion into lakes where they were previously rare, and what potential strategies we can use to mitigate severe cHABs.

This webinar is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.

Speaker

• Christopher Filstrup, Ph.D., University of Minnesota Duluth Natural Resources Research Institute, Applied Limnologist & Director of Central Analytical Lab