Fewer Fish and More Algae? Scientists Seek to Understand Impacts of Historic Lack of Great Lakes Ice

Michigan Tech University biologists have been observing a remote Lake Superior island’s fragile wolf population every winter since 1958, but they had to cut this season’s planned seven-week survey short after just two weeks.

The ski plane they study the wolves from uses the frozen lake as a landing strip because there’s nowhere to touch down on the island. But this weirdly warm winter left the Great Lakes nearly devoid of ice.

As climate change accelerates, scientists are scrambling to understand how iceless winters could affect the world’s largest freshwater system. Most of the effects are still theoretical since the lakes are generally too treacherous for data-gathering expeditions during the coldest months and biologists have long thought that little ecological activity takes place under the ice anyway. But they say the changes could have serious environmental, economic and cultural impacts, including by harming certain fish species, eroding beaches, fueling algae blooms and clogging shipping channels.

“This year really drives home the point that we need to collect more data,” said Trista Vick-Majors, an assistant biology professor who studies aquatic ecosystems at Michigan Tech. “There’s just no way you can predict how an ecosystem is going to respond to the large-scale changes we’re looking at.”

Less ice also could lead to a longer lake shipping season. But without ice blanketing the lakes, powerful winter storms could erode shorelines more than usual, which could push more sediment into harbors and make them shallower and trickier to navigate, said Eric Peace, vice president of the Lake Carriers Association, a trade group. Coupled with lower lake levels due to increased evaporation, ships might have to carry less cargo so they would sit higher in the water, he said.

This year’s lack of ice enabled Michigan Tech’s Vick-Majors to launch a project to gather winter-specific data that scientists can compare to summer data. Researchers from around the Great Lakes are participating in sampling this month.

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