Mentor: Matthew Saxton, Ph.D.

Cyanobacterial blooms are extremely harmful to both public health and freshwater ecosystems more generally as they release toxins that can be fatal for humans and other animals. Cyanobacterial blooms also negatively impact recreational use of water and tourism. These blooms are expanding in freshwater lakes because of increased eutrophication or increased nutrient inputs. In this project, we completed a literature review in order to describe the factors that drive cyanobacterial recruitment from the sediments. The factors that influence the timing and success of cyanobacterial emergence included temperature, light, nutrient availability, and mixing. The relative importance of the individual factors depends on the specific taxa of cyanobacteria. Their life cycle begins at the emergence from the sediments during optimal conditions. In our case, we observed these conditions were late spring to summer where abundant light was available and temperatures were warm. These cyanobacteria aren’t active year round, and when these suitable conditions are deviated from, the cyanobacteria go into a resting phase. For future research, we may need to find better ways to measure cyanobacterial recruitment, which can lead to finding ways to control these harmful blooms from occurring and ruining the freshwater ecosystems. We also need to continue to study this process as global temperatures are changing and increasing due to climate change, which affects the timing of recruitment for cyanobacteria and the blooms’ overall biomass.

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