Hot weather and nutrient loaded lakes = algal blooms

“Australia to sizzle during final summer heatwave” was one of the top stories trending on news.com.au yesterday. The article goes on to say that “Aussies will continue to sweat through one of the hottest Februaries in more than 150 years…”. Often the combination of hot sunny weather and high nutrient loads in lakes, generally stored in lake sediments from rain events over time, will cause algae to thrive and algal blooms (such as blue green algae) to prosper.

With cooler weather on its way, now is a good time for lake managers to take action and to think about adding Phoslock to their water bodies. Summer blooms will start to die off in the next few months and a large amount of phosphate that is currently stored in algal cells will enter the water column and lake sediments as the algal cells degrade.

Phoslock can be used as a preventative tool. This year’s dissolved phosphorus will be stored in lake sediments and used for food supply for next year’s algal blooms. Proactive lake managers can apply Phoslock at the end of summer to soak up dissolved phosphate in the water column before it is stored in the sediment.

Phoslock will also prevent large loads of stored sediment phosphate from entering the water column during normal sediment-water interface events throughout the coming year. These events include: lake temperature inversions, chemical osmosis, mixing of the sediment into the water column by aquatic organisms such as fish or storm events causing waves and currents to stir up the sediment.

For more information on how start the process of a Phoslock application, please contact Phoslock Environmental Technologies at www.petwatersolutions.com.