The threats wildfires pose to Minnesota's 10,000 lakes
WCCO has been reporting for weeks about the impacts of the northeastern Minnesota wildfires on the ground and in the air, but new research shows it could also impact the state's waterways.
"All this is a major disturbance in the watershed that's likely to have a huge impact on overall water quality in these lakes," says Dr. Christopher Filstrup, a lake scientist with the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute. "You're seeing increased erosion in these watersheds, so you're having more sediment soils coming into the lake, so there's more particles, but also there's more organic matter."
Filstrup's research found more fires lead to murkier water, and more questions.
"How long are they visible within these lakes, and more importantly, kind of are there lakes that are more sensitive to these changes or more resistant to them so we can kind of have a better idea of how we should be managing these watersheds post wildfires," he said.
Lake clarity and quality are not the only things coming into question. Scientists are also studying how it could hurt fish.
"The bacteria in the bottom of the lake go ahead and eat that increased organic matter, and during that process they can also methylate mercury, so converting it from the total form to kind of the toxic form, and does bioaccumulate in fish," he said.
The potential increase in mercury in fish is still being studied, but human-influenced climate change is sparking more fires, and more burning questions.
"These are kind of just some of the first findings coming out in the Midwest about these impacts," he said.
Hoping for answers, and then searching for solutions.
"How do we adapt to these changes? You know, are there different watershed management approaches that we can think about post fire to kind of lessen the impacts of wildfires?" he said.
There are some solutions to the problem, like planting new vegetation near shorelines after a fire to reduce erosion and stabilize the soil.
