If you guessed algae, you're right.

New research published in Communications Earth & Environment suggests algae growth is increasing in Canada's lakes — even remote ones — and climate change is the main culprit.

A team led by researchers at McGill University in Montreal and Université Laval analyzed sediment cores taken from 80 lakes across the country and found that algae has been increasing in the majority of them since the mid-1800s.

For lead author Hamid Ghanbari, the most interesting finding was a spike in the rate of the increase in algal growth: since the 1960s, it increased sevenfold.

"This was something very surprising for us and when we compared our data with other historical records, we found out that rising temperature is a major factor," Ghanbari said.

Aside from climate

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