Science Journal for Kids: How does Climate Change Affect the Great Lakes?

Climate change is a big topic that we have gone over this semester in science methods.  We had the opportunity to learn a lot about climate change with Dr. Michael Edelstein, I wrote about his lecture on climate change in my previous blog post "The Deal with Climate Change".  A lot of events that have happened in the natural world, as of late, such as the hurricanes and earthquakes have shown that climate change is, and has been, affecting many people and the things around us. 

An article on the website Science Journal For Kids, click the link to view the article,

is about how climate change has affected the Great Lakes. To find out how climate change has affected  these lakes, the scientists focused on the largest of the Great Lakes, which is, Lake Superior.  The scientists were able to collect samples of algae and  phytoplankton on the bottom of Lake Superior, and they discovered that the amount of algae and phytoplankton that lives at the bottom on the lake has slowly increased over the years. 

Initially it may sound great that there is more phytoplankton and algae at the bottom of the lake.  I thought it was great too! However, in lakes, plant life increases as the water temperatures increase.  Climate change has caused the water temperatures to continue to stay warmer and have longer periods of the lakes not having ice on it.  These rising water temperatures is part of the reason why the increasing levels of plant life in Lake Superior is not necessarily a great thing.



A simple, small thing like algae and phytoplankton could have a big effect on the ecology in lakes. The article explained that even though a lot of fish eat algae and phytoplankton, the drastic increase of it can still cause a change in what happens to the lakes. 

Reading this article showed me that something as simple as too much algae can cause a lot of change in how an ecosystem will continue to function.  Climate change has gotten to that point where we are causing so much drastic change.  As of this article, which is dated September 2017, scientists are not sure if these rapid rising levels of algae and phytoplankton will help or hurt the population of fish that live in Lake Superior.  However, the problem that I see is that the increase is happening in the first place because of the warm temperatures of  the water.  Climate change is prolonging warm weather, and temperature, and keeping ice from forming and maintaining the level of algae and phytoplankton. 

Everything in the natural world was done for a reason, and there is supposed to be a balance among all of the parts of the natural world. That includes ice forming on the lake when it is supposed.  Now, everything is so out of whack that something like too much algae could begin to form a problem. 

I was drawn to this article because I grew up next door to a lake, that same lake is pictured to the right.  Growing up, and now, I always enjoyed going there and swimming in it with my family.  As the article said, even the most pristine places are being affected by climate change.  Initially,  when you look at Lake Superior, you do not see that it is going through changes because of climate change; it is so stunning.  In the lake I have grown up swimming in, you look at it, and it is a beautiful, peaceful body of water. However, there are people who do pollute it, mainly with their garbage, and that has a huge effect on the fish and other life that is living in the lake. I know that pollution is a problem in my like, who knows the other problems there could be!

It is very important to teach our students about climate change and the things it is affecting.  It is also important for out students to realize that just because we may not see the climate change happening, doesn't mean that it's not.  It is always important to be caught up with the news and what is going on in the natural world.  As teachers, we have the platform to teach our students about climate change and to keep them knowledgeable about it.  However, we shouldn't just teach our students about all the bad that is happening, but how we can help climate change from getting worse. Like the article said, we can do things to help climate change from progressing in the future. We can help climate change by walking to places or car pooling, recycling, composting, turning off the lights, etc.  As a population that is also getting greatly affected by climate change, we should do all we can to try and keep it from getting any worse than it already has.  We can teach our students to be proactive and to help make the world we are living in a better place.  Let's preserve the beautiful world we live in!