SPACE APP CHALLENGE 2019

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 photosyntheticCyanobacteria. 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.

Whereas 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. Algalblooms 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 moreharmful 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).

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.

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 prefect 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.

With these in mind, we can build solution app/website/device which will be used to test waters for chances of occurrence of algae bloom. If we build a website, it must include some sort of range level of the above values and what their outcome will be and this will help to determine the urgentness of treating the water body if necessary to prevent occurrence of algae bloom.