Dealing with toxic algae blooms in Mattatall Lake (Nova Scotia) to improve the water quality and to suggest a sustainable treatment for eutrophic water cyanobacteria

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Recently, massive blooms of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria or harmful algae bloom - HAB) have invaded Mattatall Lake (ML) in Nova Scotia (NS) and had an adverse effect on this lake environment, as well as on living habitats around its watershed: the wildlife and birds have left the lake, people and animals cannot go into the lake as it is toxic to both. This is a problem new to this area and could easily spread to other lakes in Nova Scotia. The fishing and recreational activities in ML have drastically diminished and have had an adverse effect on many businesses within the ML community. The harmful algal blooms are not only destroying the landscape beauty, they mainly affect sources of drinking water, negatively influencing their quality (smell, taste, etc.). Because of quantity of toxins they may produce, HABs have to be seriously studied to better understand their development and any impact in public health of the community living around the lake watershed. The Atlantic Water Treatment Technologies (AWTT), a water remediation company in Cape Breton (NS), therefore expects to get involved in the treatment process for the water contaminated by HAB in ML. However, due to the lack of data and tools to understand the HAB problem, especially for odd cyanobacteria blooms persisting until winter, the company AWTT came to the Biofluids and Biosystems Modeling Lab (BBML) of Dr. Nguyen-Quang for assistance. AWTT considers this example of ML water treatment as an opportunity to develop new services and continue to grow its business. Hence, this project is a joint effort between Dr. Nguyen-Quang and AWTT. The specific objectives include: 1) Understanding the blue-green algae bloom occurrence under different micro-nutrient levels and coupling effects of biochemical physical factors; to explain the pattern in function of environmental parameters and anthropogenic factors; 2) to suggest a monitoring framework related to water quality of the lake and a possible sustainable solution for this harmful issue.