{"id":33798,"date":"2014-01-20T13:20:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T19:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=33798"},"modified":"2014-01-21T16:10:45","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T22:10:45","slug":"climate-change-could-lead-to-more-massive-freshwater-fish-kills-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/01\/20\/climate-change-could-lead-to-more-massive-freshwater-fish-kills-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change Could Lead to More Massive Fish Kills in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dead<\/a>

Photo by Michael Hooper courtesy of USGS.<\/p>

Dead fish washed ashore during a toxic bloom of golden algae in Canyon Lakes in Lubbock, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the Asian Carp to the\u00a0Zebra Mussel<\/a>, Texas has its fair share of invasive species. Some of them get a lot of attention (I’m looking at you,\u00a0voracious feral hog<\/a>). Others tend to sneak under the radar even when they damage ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Take\u00a0Golden Algae<\/a>. Originally from Europe,\u00a0the microscopic plant was discovered on the Pecos River in 1985 when an algae bloom killed hundreds of thousands of fish. Since then, it has colonized other Texas river basins and killed millions more fish<\/a>.\u00a0Unlike deadly algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico<\/a> that kill fish by taking all the oxygen, golden algae is, itself, toxic. Under the right circumstances, it produces a poison that kills fish, bivalves (and probably any other animal with gills) in the affected waters.<\/p>\n

So, it’s no surprise that scientists are trying to learn about it.<\/p>\n

Just this weekend the US Geological Survey<\/a> announced the results of one study that could hold answers to what causes the algae to spread, and points to a troubling relationship between the spread of the algae and global climate change.<\/p>\n

In the study<\/a>, researchers from Texas Tech and the USGS show how “salinity is the most important known variable influencing Golden Algae distribution and bloom formation in inland waters.” In other words, the saltier a lake or reservoir is, the more habitable it will be to this algal invader.<\/p>\n

That might not bode well for Texas water ways, and the reason is climate change, which could make our lakes and rivers saltier than ever, according to the USGS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Climate change could play a major role in future occurrences because the projected rise in temperatures and change in precipitation patterns may lead to higher salinity levels. Higher temperatures could lead to more water evaporating from reservoirs, which can create higher salinity levels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One reason that could be a problem is that high salinity not only appears to encourage the alga \u00a0to colonize a body of water, it encourages it to bloom. There are several lakes in Texas where Golden Algae is present but is not currently known to bloom.<\/p>\n

“If future increases in salinity due to climate change were to happen, then those places and other that we don\u2019t know about perhaps could start blooming and causing problems,”\u00a0Reynaldo Patino, USGS scientist and lead author of the study told StateImpact Texas.<\/p>\n

An earlier study<\/a> has shown how climate change and other human influence has also led to decreased inflows into reservoirs, another factor that could lead to higher salinity and, therefore, more algae blooms.<\/p>\n

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