MicrobeWorld

Of all the things that might control the onset of disease epidemics in Michigan lakes, the shape of the lakes' bottoms might seem unlikely. But that is precisely the case, and a new BioScience report by scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and four other institutions explains why.

"In the paper, we go through several explanations for what is going on," said IU Bloomington biologist Spencer Hall, the report's lead author. "We are looking at the zooplankton that is infected, the fish and other creatures, the ecology, the limnology, and even the physics. Of all those explanations, the shape of the lake basins was the most powerful factor."

Also contributing to the report were scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the National Science Foundation, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.