Before we start talking about “Algal Bloom”, let’s look at the following photos and see whether or not you can spot them.
What you have seen are all of the ways and colors algal blooms can form in our bodies of water depending on the algae composition.
By now, we can assume that most of you reading this article know or have heard of the term “algal bloom” before, especially when you are dreaming of swimming in an open and clean body of water during the summertime. However, when you see greenish water, it may just stop you from stepping into the water because you may co-relate the greenish stuff as mossy or dirty since it could negatively affect your health.
But… What is “Algal Bloom” Exactly?
Scientifically speaking, an algal bloom is a rapid increase of microalgae in water systems (freshwater or marine) due to an increasing influx of two primary nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) that mostly come from human activities, such as crop fertilization and excessive human wastes [1]. The rapid growth of microalgae will significantly affect the whole ecosystem depending on the scale of algal bloom from light to severe.
Nonetheless, the existence of algal bloom is not always a negative thing to have because those algae in our ecosystem as they can actually help remove nitrogen and phosphorus faster than other microorganisms, thus keeping the nutrient level balanced in the bodies of water. Yet, when there is too much nitrogen and phosphorus present in water, that is when algal bloom becomes a real problem.
Algal Bloom and Its Categories
Here I will divide the scale into three groups:
The most notorious consequence of algal bloom is known as eutrophication* which can significantly lower the levels of oxygen present in water which can even secrete toxins into the water and kill aquatic lives, depending on the microorganisms present. Having a severe degree of algal bloom would start a chain reaction and further deteriorate the condition of water bodies.
Harmful Algal Bloom is Now Part of Our Lives
Let’s look at the figure showing an increasing global observation of toxic algal bloom events. This was published in 2021 in the Nature Journal written by Dr. Zingone, Dr. Hallegraeff, and others [2].
We can observe that the occurrence of “harmful algal bloom (HAB)” has increased over time from 1985 to 2018. One of the underlying reasons is due to climate change where the global temperature has risen higher than before, which enables algae to grow even faster.
As previously mentioned, a harmful algal bloom can be defined as a toxic substance secreted by the algae blooms found in our water, which is the leading cause of human poisoning in different regions of the world. If we are to forecast the overall trend of HAB events, we can conclude that these poisoning events would continue to increase in the near future, making other humans and even our pets threatened by it directly or indirectly.
The “OBIS causative organisms” mentioned in the graphs above include the following three algae, and each may result in unique poisoning syndromes:
- Dinophysis → Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning
- Pseudo-nitzschia → Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning
- Alexandrium → Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning
It may sound extremely horrible, and it truly is. More now than ever algal bloom has become part of our lives in proportion to the growth of our activities.
Here Are 2 Negative paths of Algal Bloom that impact us!
Ecological Disaster → Toxin → Death of Aquatic Lives
- Economic Loss → Death of Aquatic Lives → Less Harvest
What Can We as Humans Do to Live in Harmony with this Harmful Algal Bloom?
This isn’t a simple question to be answered because it is highly associated with how we live our daily lives. We have to ponder, are we able to commit to not growing crops with rich nitrogen-based fertilizers which may reduce our harvest, or are we prepared to be more conscientious of what we put in our wastewater and find ways to reduce the amount that reach our bodies of water? Probably not.
Our experts and researchers are currently hard at work figuring out when these blooms become toxic and are currently looking for solutions. As citizens of the world, we need to pay close attention to our daily lives and take action on things we can control like the types of food we purchase and how they were grown as well as the things we throw down our sewers.
Simple actions like these will indirectly influence how business people strategize their plans when growing plants, manufacturing, and emitting wastewater to our bodies of water. This way we can force them to implement key prevention strategies to minimize runoff by adding more green infrastructures like retention ponds and wetlands [3].
The key message we want to get across here is that we should not ignore the power we as consumers have that can potentially help improve our overall environmental conditions. Although algal bloom is a very large-scale problem, we can still make efforts to make our environment better.
Currently, AquaClear Sustainable is hard at work on a new design of septic tanks which we believe can potentially increase the treatment efficiency of the wastewater through our product, Vita Beads. We will soon release more information about Vita Beads. Please follow us and get to know more about us!
* Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus.
[3] GAO urges EPA, NOAA to do more about harmful algal blooms
