Algae in a warming and nutrient rich world: How temperatures and nutrients interact to chance species-assemblage structures and function

Paula Furey, Assistant Professor of Biology, received $7,500 from the APDC Grant Fund to examine how algae species assemble structure and function will respond to climate warming and nutrient additions. Climate change and nutrient pollution threatens the integrity of freshwaters and are predicted to change their ecosystem fundamentally. Understanding the impacts of these stressors on aquatic environments is imperative for these valuable ecosystems to remain healthy. To uncover the influence of these factors and their interactions on freshwaters, we need to understand who is there, why they are there, and what drives the changes in what they do. Understanding the factors that control the abundance and species composition of algal groupings will help build a build to predict how changes in climate and nutrient pollution will influence freshwater biota and nutrient dynamics. Knowledge gained from this study could be used to predict distribution patterns of different algal groups in relation to climate change and eutrophication – when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrient – and thus help inform government agencies and policymakers