CAREER: Mechanisms of Phytoplankton Community Re-organization Under Global Change

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Fresh water is becoming a major limiting resource worldwide. Global environmental change is exacerbating freshwater limitation by negatively affecting not only water quantity but quality as well, through stimulating harmful algal blooms (HABs) in waterbodies across the globe. This project aims to understand and predict how and when communities of microscopic algae in lakes shift towards dominance by the toxic algae (cyanobacteria in particular) responsible for most HABs in freshwaters. Using lake sampling in Michigan and mathematical models, Litchman will explore how global warming alters lake water movement and thus conditions such as light and temperature that affect algae growth, including toxic cyanobacteria. Because many HABs can increase the availability of nitrogen in the water, the project will also investigate how changing nutrient availability affects interactions among algal groups. Finally, Litchman will explore how rapid evolutionary response of harmful cyanobacteria to changing climate shapes community composition of microscopic algae and impacts water quality. During this award, Litchman will teach a new course on Field Aquatic Ecology at Michigan State University for advanced undergraduate and graduate students focusing on the effects of global environmental change on aquatic ecosystems. Teachers from local rural schools will work with the PI to develop age-appropriate learning activities on aquatic ecology, water quality issues and global change. Undergraduate and graduate students will participate in the project as will local lake residents and lake associations who will aid in sampling efforts to detect HAB-forming species. Litchman will collaborate with European colleagues on adapting lake physics models to predict HAB occurrences in the future.