Algal Blooms

Photo of Doctoral Student Emily Varga taken in KenyaDoctoral student Emily Varga travelled to the east African country of Kenya to gain an understanding of its algal blooms.

Team comparing algal blooms in Africa and North America

Harmful algal blooms are not unique to Lake Erie. The global issue took a team of UWindsor researchers to Kenya to study its algal blooms, in hopes of shedding light on the problem in southern Ontario.

The collaborative effort paired researchers from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Kenya to collect data on Lake Victoria in hopes of better understanding the environmental drivers of harmful algal blooms. Algal blooms are collections of algae that have the potential to produce toxins that can contaminate drinking water and harm the ecosystem.