The impact of decades of acid rain (better known as acid precipitation) is causing North American lakes to turn to jelly. The water isn’t literally turning to jelly, but acid reduces the availability of calcium in lakes, only aquatic organisms with low calcium requirements can survive, causing others that have higher calcium requirements to become covered in a jellyish coating. The overabundance of these critters disrupts food webs and clogs intake pipes. The biological impact of “jellification” is unknown, but this development is especially disheartening given that the effort to combat acid precipitation was mostly successful. This can cause disruption in aquatic ecosystems, killing fish and aquatic organisms.
Shocking how acid rain is found to be affecting our environment in different ways. There should be some regulations the government can pass to insure the purification of lakes and rivers. I never thought that acids can cause “jellification” in bodies of water.
Source:
The Latest Legacy of Acid Rain: Jellied Lakes | JSTOR Daily. (2016, November). Retrieved December 1, 2016, from
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&p=DevEx,5085.1
It’s crazy that acid rain has become such a severe issue to the point where it turns organisms into jelly! What were the previously successful efforts to combat acid precipitation that you touched on?
How does the “jellification” of some organisms affect food webs? does it make some organisms no longer edible to predators? does it make underwater plant life no longer edible to aquatic herbivores?