Scientists install tanks in Caloosahatchee in hopes of better understanding algae blooms

The News-Press

Water quality scientists installed a dozen fiberglass tanks Monday in the Caloosahatchee River in hopes of getting a better understanding about toxic blue-green algae blooms.

Led by the United States Geological Survey, the team designed the experiment to see how blue-green algae reacts to different stimulants, such as nutrients.

"We’re looking at what can make it grow and die off, to see what different parameters are related to the different conditions," said Travis Knight, of the USGS. "What might make it produce more toxins or less toxins."

Nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients will be added to the cylinders, and the scientists will collect the samples in about a week.

It's the second part of a three-stage test that came about after last year's disastrous blue-green algae bloom, which crippled the Caloosahatchee River and filled some area canals with carpet-like mats of toxic algae.

Travis Knight and Robert Clendening, both hydrologic technicians with the U.S. Geological Survey Southeast Region and Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center place floating plastic tubes at the Franklin Locks on the Caloosahatchee River on Monday 7/8/2019 that will used in a scientific experiment studying cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. The scientists will study the affects of of nutrients such as nitrate, ammonia and/or phosphorus and and assess what will happen to the algae.

Knight and others positioned the cylinders along the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam in Alva.

The first stage involved collecting water samples, and the third stage, which is expected this fall, will focus on analyzing the data.

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"We started in April because we wanted to get out in front of the bloom season and see if we could do anything to stimulate the bloom," said Barry Rosen, a biologist with the USGS.

Last year's bloom started after heavy rains in May flushed nutrients into the system.

A bloom has been ongoing this summer on Lake Okeechobee, the liquid heart of the historic Everglades.

The system starts just south of Orlando and flows to the Florida Keys and includes 16 counties, including Lee and Collier.

While bloom conditions raged much of last summer in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, this year canals have mostly been clean of the cyanobacteria matting, but it's always in the system.

"Hopefully in the future we will be able to predict when a bloom will happen and if we can get to that point, predictive, then we can prevent these blooms and that might take a larger scale effort of prohibiting certain nutrients from the watershed," said Jose Lopez, a professor at Nova Southeastern University. "But that’s beyond science in some ways."

Information the group collects will eventually become published science that may help guide things like land-use decisions and nutrient removal programs, Lopez said.

Mike Parsons, a Florida Gulf Coast University professor, is a member of the state's Blue-Green Algae Task Force and said this study is the type of information the task force wants.

"These kind of data are useful because they can help us find the solution," Parsons said.

Rosen said the group hopes to find a way to eventually prevent these types of blooms, which can cripple local economies and the real estate and tourism industries.

Elizabeth Schroeder, a FGCU student pulls a water sample from a plastic tube placed by the USGS at the Franklin Locks on the Caloosahatchee River on Monday 7/8/2019. They will used in a scientific experiment studying cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. The scientists will study the affects of of nutrients such as nitrate, ammonia and/or phosphorus and and assess what will happen to the algae.

"Can we find a kink in the armor?" Rosen said. "Is there something going on in that sequence that we can target because once you get a massive bloom it’s almost impossible to control? And we don’t want to wait for that. We’re a long way from finding it out but that’s what we’re targeting."

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Rosen said the group hopes to find out what's causing the recent blue-green algae blooms but actually changing the amount of nutrients flowing into the historic Everglades is up to others agencies.

"If you find nitrate is something that is worth controlling moving forward then you would look upstream into the watershed," Rosen said. "There’s a fair amount of land between here and Lake Okeechobee and there’s a fair amount of watershed contribution of nutrients. (But taking regulatory actions) is something other agencies would have to target."

Connect with this reporter: @ChadGillisNP on Twitter.

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Connect with this reporter: @ChadGillisNP on Twitter.