January 22, 2016 — Climate change has caused a four-degree rise in water temperature and a decline in water quality over the past two decades in Buzzards Bay, according to a study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Buzzards Bay Coalition.
“We have seen a widespread and rapid increase in water temperature from 1992 to 2013 and this agrees with other regional studies so we are fairly confident that this is related to climate change,” said Jenny Rheuban, a research associate at WHOI and lead author of the study.
The study — which involved data collected by more than 1,000 trained citizen scientists involved with the coalition over 22 years — also revealed an increase in algae growth, a cause of poor water quality.
“Algae like phytoplankton are the reason that when you go to the beach the water is murkier and not as clear as you’d like,” said Rachel Jakuba, science director for the Buzzards Bay Coalition and co-author of the study.
The levels of chlorophyll, an indicator of phytoplankton or algae, in the water nearly doubled, according to the study, despite the fact that nitrogen levels remained relatively constant.
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