Extreme weather affects the lake’s wildlife.

Last spring, the Lake Balaton Institute of Limnology (BLI), part of the Ecological Research Center, was the first in Central and Eastern Europe to launch an aquatic mesocosm system that can simulate a real environment in a larger and more medium environment. realistic than laboratory microconditions, said Csaba Vad, a researcher at the institute.

Preliminary results from the first comprehensive investigation conducted on Tihany’s BLI system show that

Lake Balaton’s waters are more algae from short, intense heat waves than would be caused by the projected average annual temperature rise up to the turn of the century.

It was investigated whether the increase in annual mean temperature or extreme summer heat waves have a greater impact on the wildlife of Lake Balaton than the concomitant effects of global warming.

According to the Csaba Vad report, preliminary results show that a minor rise in average temperature did not in itself trigger significant algal growth in the short term.

At the same time, the water in the tanks that modeled extreme weather conditions, that is, heat waves, began to turn green rapidly due to the proliferation of algae, but with the nutrient content kept at the same level, it did not become as intense either. .

These investigations will be complemented by several nutrient loading studies next year, which may, among other things, contribute to understanding the growth of blue-green algae, which pose a health risk in Lake Balaton. The researcher emphasized that mesocosm research seeks answers to global problems, and that Lake Balaton can play a key role in this work.



Researchers: Lake Balaton has turned into algae due to released phosphorus


MTI
Technology

Researchers say it outpaced even the 1982 high algae growth this year.