"Industrial Pollution Is Turning Lakes Into ‘Jelly’"

"As Canadian lakes have become more acidic, they've become increasingly dominated by jelly-like plankton that are throwing things out of whack, new research suggests. And these gummy invaders aren't going anywhere. Soon, they could even disrupt the country's water supply.

Years of industrial pollution have replaced the calcium that should be in Canadian soil with acid. Over time, as the drainage areas that feed the country's lakes are leeched of their calcium, so are the lakes themselves.

That's bad news for the calcium-rich plankton (like the Daphnia water fleas) that used to thrive there. Research published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that these plankton may be losing their turf to invaders less friendly to human needs."

Rachel Feltman reports for the Washington Post November 19, 2014.