Þingvellir Lake pollution worries

Nitrogen pollution and rising water temperatures may be having an adverse effect on wildlife in Iceland’s Þingvellir Lake, according to a new report.

The report looks at flora and fauna and water quality in Þingvellir Lake and confirms the findings of previous years that changes have occurred in recent decades.

According to one of the authors of the report, biologist Finnur Ingimarsson, levels of algae in plankton have increased making the lake less transparent and levels of Charales algae seem to be falling.

“Falling levels of Charales algae could affect stocks of stickleback, which often live within the algae,” explains Ingimarsson. “Sticklebacks are, in turn, the dietary mainstay of a given species of river trout in the lake.”

These changes can be put down to increased levels of nitrogen in the water, Ingimarsson considers. Tourism in the area may also be having an effect as airborne pollution is also a likely contributing factor.

“It is high time for a wider-ranging study on flora and fauna in the lake such as the ones conducted in the 1970s and 1980s,” says Ingimarsson. “There are various indications that things have changed since then.”