Bioremediating Cyanobacteria Using the Aquatic Snails Viviparus georgianus In a rapidly warming world, Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs) have the potential to become a more pressing issue on a global scale. CyanoHABs’ effects on the well-being of ecosystems and detrimental impact on animal and human health demand economical, environmentally friendly solutions. It is critical that if CyanoHABs are to be reduced or eliminated, we must consider the long-term implications of potential solutions. Algaecides, artificial mixing, flushing and flocculation are techniques used to mitigate CyanoHABs; however, these strategies are temporary, small scale, costly and impact ecosystems. To be effective, they would need to be combined with the reduction of nutrients in the water, which is not a plausible option given nutrient load reduction costs and current demands of agriculture and industry. Our research has shown that the benthic snail Viviparus georgianus can consume cyanobacterial cells under specific conditions. By using V. georgianus to bioremediate cyanobacteria, we can not only help mitigate the problem but also prevent the negative impacts of other chemical and physical methods.
Although V. georgianus are already in the lakes where algal blooms are present, they are unable to access it for consumption. There is still the problem of how to overlap the interaction between a benthic snail and CyanoHABs floating colonies. Knowing that maximum oxygenation of the water occurs at the surface and that below a certain depth the snails will not be able to access cyanobacteria, we are interested in implementing floating shallow mesocosms with different snail densities and platform depths. By breaking the barrier between the two species, we could provide a solution to the issue of CyanoHABs without introducing a problematic new element to already troubled water sources. Comments are closed.
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