Topic:TO BLOOM OR NOT TO BLOOM

This project is to determine the mystery behind algal blooms.

We the P.U.N.C Team where inspired by the change in the environment and the world today, we realized algae bloom has been known to exhibiting blooms that affect both aquatic and human.

BACKGROUND

We have to exfoliate the real meaning of this content first before we dive into how to manage their presence and predict its growth rate and damage to imminent life of both aquatic animals and human life.

Algae are the name given to a large and diverse group of oxygenic, photosynthetic, eukaryotic mircroorganisms. Algae are eukaryotic in that it has nucleus and this differentiates them from bacteria and photosynthetic Cyanobacteria. They are oxygenic prototroph in that they use light as their energy source for growth and produce oxygen as a byproduct, like plants. However, it’s not plant in entirety in that in plants, there are tissue differentiation which results to either roots, stems, trunks, leaves as so on, while algae is composed of cells that are generally the same. Although these differences abound, many algal species are said to be closely related to plants. Algae are diverse photosynthetic organism that naturally occurs in marine and freshwater systems. The term algae encompasses many types of aquatic photosynthetic organisms both macroscopic, multicellular organism like seaweed and microscopic unicellular organism like cyanobacteria.

According to NASA data “Recent increases in cyanobacterial HABs in the Great Lakes has caused significant concern for human and ecosystem health due to the production of toxins by bloom species. In the Great Lakes, Microcystis dominates the cyanobacterial bloom community and produces the hepatotoxin microcystin. Studies have documented the presence of microcystins in the Great Lakes, at times exceeding the recommended limit of 1 µg L-1 of microcystin established by the World Health Organization for drinking water supplies. GLERL research will directly address whether algal toxins could impact human health in the communities of the Lake Erie Islands and have broader implications for other communities using the Great Lakes as a drinking water source.”

Algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems, and is often recognized by the discoloration of the water from their pigments. They are vital in many ecosystems, supporting aquatic food chains affecting air quality. Algal blooms are results of a nutrient like nitrogen or phosphorous from fertilizer runoff, entering the aquatic system causing excessive growth of algae. An algal bloom affects the whole ecosystem; it can help benign results like simply feeding higher tropic levels to more harmful effects like blocking the sunlight from reaching the water. Though they bloom periodically such as phytoplankton, certain conditions can cause the rapid, out-of-control algal growth resulting to the alteration of the water oxygen quantity, light penetration and eventual destruction of marine life. While in humans, it can produce harmful toxins that cause rashes, breathing problems and damage to the liver.

Some factors that increase the occurrence of algae bloom are as viz:

• Wind and water current.
• Presence of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and carbon.
• Warmer water temperatures.
• Extreme events such as floods, hurricanes, and drought.
• Sluggish water circulation (Stagnation of water).
• Runoff from agricultural waste products

The implication of this is that some water bodies have high concentration of some of these aforementioned factors and as such when there is a kind of mixture, there could be resulting in some water bodies to develop algal bloom.

Plant affected

SOURCE FROM NCCOS With the well-documented decline of coral reefs, lesser-understood "mesophotic" or "twilight" reefs (found 30 to 150 meters beneath the ocean surface) may serve as sources of fish and invertebrate larvae that may sustain nearby shallow reef ecosystems and the tourism economies that depend on them. Photo Credit: Hector Ruiz

Solution

We realize the cause of bloom and have decided that to predict the occurrence of algae:

• Once the temperature rises above normal in the region and especially in water, some blue-green algae can easily bloom and since they can absorb sunlight, it gives room for multiplication.
• Increased Salinity of fresh water which sometimes comes with climatic change such as drought and this can easily give in to their growth.
• Increased level of carbon (IV) oxide in water and air can lead to easy multiplication especially the blue-green algae that flow easily on surface water.
• Changes in rain fall especially extreme storms in during raining season. Climatic change might affect rainfall patterns leading to alternating periods of drought and intense storms. This can cause more nutrient runoff into water bodies feeding more algal blooms.
• Sea level rise scientists predict that sea level could rise up to one meter by the year 2100. This would create more shallow and stable coastal water, conditions that are perfect for the growth of algae.
• Coastal upwelling.

Fig: showing the conditions and at what rate they support the growth of algae and its proportionate restarted growth rate.

We also came across an app

CyAN app: it can be used to quickly inform decisions regarding recreational and drinking water safety. Lake managers, for example, could use the CyAN app on a weekly basis to monitor lakes in their region. At a quick glance of their mobile devices, they could pinpoint potential problem areas and focus their attention and resources there. The data might prompt them to manually collect water samples from certain lakes for more information or issue a public advisory that closes local shores to recreation.

The CyAN app is an experimental mobile application and provides provisional satellite derived measures of cyanobacteria, which may contain errors and should be considered a research level tool.

This solution we have determined will help scientists and people determine likely develop algae blooms soon. . Lake managers, for example, could use the CyAN app on a weekly basis to monitor lakes in their region. At a quick glance of their mobile devices, they could pinpoint potential problem areas and focus their attention and resources there

Problems and achievements

Team P.U.N.C had challenge with colour variation but was able to use the starlight colour of earth to determine sunlight and temperature variation.

OUR challenge, we worked as team, and everyone cooperated but the internet network

NASA Resources used in our solution

• NASA Earth data colour features
• NOAA - Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
• IOOS

This NASA data we used were most relevant in determining the previous and possiblesolution towards the algea blooms.

This spaceApp is really collaboration is great I and my team was able to achieve with this space of time, we had some challenge which include location and power supply but by the next space Apps challenge we will put all measure in place. Now we have adopted a plat form and were able to make it functional.

By 2020 we will explore greater.

#Research learning #artificial intelligence #earth science # algae bloom #living-our-world #bloom-or-not-bloom #Team P.U.N.C.

Reference

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6001139/The-mysterious-algae-bloom-whirlpool-Baltic-Sea-big-cover-Manhattan.html

https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/Programs/eco_dyn/eco_dyn.html

https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/

https://oa.ioos.us/

https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/research/marine-spatial-ecology/mesophotic-coral-ecosystems/