I ran across some disturbing news that may seriously impact world ink supplies. Global Warming is harming the "turnover" of waters in Lake Tanganyika, the world's sole source of several important ink dyes. According to marine biologists:
"This water movement is often driven by winds that sweep surface waters away from shore, allowing underlying water to rise. That sort of mixing, however, has been stifled in recent years by lake warming. Because warm water is less dense than cool water, the increasing temperature spread has made it more difficult for the underlying nutrient-rich water to upwell, says Verburg.
"This decline in circulation has affected populations of aquatic microbes, especially in the past few decades. Biomasses of several plankton species measured in spring of 2001 and summer of 2000 averaged only 30 percent of those tallied during spring and summer of 1975, says Hedy Kling of the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She, Verburg, and Robert E. Hecky of the University of Waterloo report their findings in an upcoming Science.
"The bioplanktons, with their distinctive purplish color, are only found in this African lake. If current trends continue, these species may disappear within the next 20 years, meaning the end of PR's Tanzanite Blue and related inks, such as Noodler's Upper Ganges."