Left: a handful of Holopedium from a lake in the Muskoka-Haliburton region of Ontario. Right: a Holopedium up close

Calcium loss turning lakes to ‘jelly’

19 November 2014

Declining calcium levels in some North American lakes are causing major depletions of dominant plankton species, enabling the rapid rise of their ecological competitor: a small jelly-clad invertebrate. Scientists say increasing ‘jellification’ will damage fish stocks and filtration systems that allow lakes to supply drinking water, and that lakes may have been pushed into “an entirely new ecological state”.

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