published this month<\/a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, says the number of ice-free days and rising air temperatures have contributed to a “rapid algal community restructuring” in large northern lakes such as Great Bear. <\/p>\n\u201cThere’ll be winners and losers here,\u201d said John Smol, a biology professor at Queen’s University and co-director of the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL).<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause there’s less ice cover, there should be more algae in total \u2013 more food in total. \u2026 The type of algae has changed significantly, and that’s where we’re not sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smol said previous research in Great Slave Lake found that the algae population there was shifting from varieties rich in calories and fatty acids to those with fewer calories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Changes in algae species over time<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at things that are happening similarly in, like, the Great Lakes \u2026 that same type of shift\u2019s been shown to really affect fish food,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team conducted its research by examining layers of sediment in core samples taken from different parts of Great Bear Lake.<\/p>\n
That allowed them to draw conclusions about how the environment had changed over different periods.<\/p>\n
They also compared their findings to similar research on Lake Hazen and Great Slave Lake in the N.W.T.<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780923619_381_default.jpg\")
Researchers arrive at a sediment coring location on Great Bear Lake. (Andrew Mummery\/Environment and Climate Change Canada)<\/p>\n
The composition of algae species in the Great Bear Lake has shifted from shallow-water varieties common to ice-covered lakes to species that thrive in open water, Smol said.<\/p>\n
Researchers were surprised by how much all three of the lakes had changed in recent years given their size, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The lakes are] about the size of the country of Belgium. You could fit the CN Tower into Great Slave, and you could fit the Eiffel Tower with a football field to spare in Great Bear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they should be slow to change because they have \u2026 what we called thermal inertia.\u201d<\/p>\n
One environmental scientist who has worked as a fishing guide on Great Bear Lake for Plummer\u2019s Arctic Lodges for the past 14 years said he hasn\u2019t noticed a trend during the relatively short time he\u2019s fished on the lake.<\/p>\n
Stoyberg said he has read the study and agrees with Smol and his co-authors that there isn\u2019t enough data on the lake yet to draw any conclusions from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s nothing to support that the ciscoes aren’t doing well or that the baitfish aren’t doing well or better or that the invertebrates aren’t doing well or better,\u201d Stoyberg said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it’s certainly important to note the change and then \u2026 I hope that they’re going to continue any further research and investigative work to see \u2026 what’s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stoyberg said Great Bear is such an unforgiving system that species have to adapt or die.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny change to a system is going to \u2026 stir the pot, if you will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you’ve developed a survival strategy for such a harsh environment, if a change happens and all of a sudden, you’re not very good at surviving anymore \u2026 it’s going to have to start the selective mutation cycle all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-723017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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