If your eyes have ever become itchy while looking at a sea of floating, dead fish, you've probably experienced a toxic algae bloom first-hand.
Residents have to endure red tide, or Karenia brevis, at their saltwater beaches and harmful blue-green algae, or Cyanobacteria, in their freshwater canals, rivers and lakes.
Both kinds of algae buildup can irritate people’s eyes and throats or cause neurological symptoms. Ingesting contaminated water or seafood can lead to vomiting and diarrhea. The toxins can also kill marine life and exposed pets.
Florida's toxic algae bloom season starts in about a month, but the state has already issued multiple health alerts this year.
There are active alerts for Lake Thonotosassa in Hillsborough County, Tiger Lake in Osceola County, and Orange Lake in Marion County.
The outbreaks have been getting worse over the years, partially due to stormwater pushing nutrient-rich fertilizer into water bodies.
"Florida is a big state of using fertilizer,” said Florida Polytechnic University researcher Yudi Wu, PhD.
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Over the next two years, her team will be testing a mechanism that they hope will filter out the nutrients from fertilizers that feed these blooms.
"It can help to remove as much nutrients as possible that we are interested in," she said.
Floating columns of 3 to 5 feet, made of limestone and a charcoal-like material called biochar, will absorb the phosphorus and nitrogen found in fertilizer.
This method is designed to prevent their buildup while restoring ecological balance. Wu said it’s also cost-effective.
“Limestone is a very cheap medium … and then the biochar that we are using can be manufactured by our lab,” Wu said.
They're also thinking about collecting the algae to make more biochar.
The experiments will start out small — in a fish tank — before releasing the mechanism into the wild at Se7en Wetlands in Lakeland, which is a former phosphate mine.
The site filters millions of gallons of treated wastewater each day while providing a habitat for a variety of Florida wildlife.
Two undergraduate students at Florida Polytechnic are assisting Wu on this research.
In a couple of years, Wu plans to publish their findings in a peer-reviewed science journal.
The study is in collaboration with Florida A&M University and funded by a $300,000 grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
