I know that algae reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere & makes more oxygen than trees. I am aware that there are some species that are allergic to algae and will die in it, but as an overall whole how good/bad would it be if we just let algae take over the Great Lakes.
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Very bad. An algae bloom will have algae washing up on shore and rotting. In addition it can kill fish and invertibrates. The great lakes are very pure water and you would have to add a bunch of organic matter to make algae grow abundantly and that would contaminate a measurable percentage of the fresh water in the world.
Most cities that surround the Great Lakes us them for drinking water. You wouldn’t want any kind of contamination that would make algae grow exponentially in it. The effects on the ecosystems would ruin the fishing which feed many and give recreational dollars to communities.
It would be bad. Algae blooms are followed by massive algae die-off as they use up all their nutrients. As the dead algae sinks to the bottom, it’s broken down mostly by bacteria which use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. The massive amounts of food available to these bacteria causes their population to explode, quickly using up all the oxygen in deeper water levels where it replenishes very slowly, causing all other aerobic (oxygen using) deep life to die
Ecology gal here. Excess algae causes the water to gain more phosphorus and nitrogen, and have less oxygen. This creates a harmful environment for fish to live it and they will die.
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