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Mayfly Madness: How Lake Erie's Pollution Suppressed the Swarm, 1953-1997

Fri, April 11, 10:30 to 11:45am, Omni William Penn, Floor: Conference Level, Carnegie III

Abstract

In 1953, the mayfly disappeared from Lake Erie. For decades, shoreline cities in both Canada and the United States endured yearly swarms as thousands of insects descended upon them fueled solely by reproductive desire. Once expired, the mayflies, whose life cycles lasted less than forty-eight hours, left residents to manage the ankle-deep piles of pungent and oily carcasses littering their streets and storefronts. Yet for more than forty years, between 1953 and 1997, the swarms never materialized. Suppressed by the lake’s cultural eutrophication, the result of excessive nutrient loading from agricultural and industrial pollution, the vulnerable nymphs burrowed in the lakebed had been snuffed out by devastating anoxia. The disappearance disrupted not only the delicate transboundary ecosystem but also alerted scientists and the public to the toxic chokehold controlling Lake Erie’s waters.

Until now, scholars have overlooked the mayfly's historical importance. Crucially, its recovery, beginning in the 1980s, signaled to researchers that pollution abatements, directly linked to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), were working. Based on this evidence the International Joint Commission (IJC), in 1990, added mayflies to a growing list of environmental indicators. The international body argued that the insects' intolerance to pollution demonstrated that recovery of mesotrophic ecosystems was possible when eutrophication was properly managed. More importantly, researchers also agreed that returning yearly swarms offered the public a highly visible display of water quality amelioration. To Canada and the United States the mayfly, despite its miniature size and momentary lifespan, proved to be an ecological priority and political interest.
This study then speaks to the interplay between international policies and non-human actors inhabiting the borderlands between Canada and the United States. Moreover, it demonstrates how human-led ecological restoration efforts sometimes yield unexpected and paradoxical results– like using snow shovels to rid insect corpses in mid-July.

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