Unraveling knowledge gaps about cyanobacterial blooms and proposing an alternative for lake restoration

Abstract

Artificial eutrophication has been considered a problem of major concern in aquatic ecosystems around the world. Since 1960, scientific advances have been made in order to develop techniques that mitigate the effects of eutrophication. Several physical, chemical and biological procedures can be used and combined to recover lakes from cyanobacterial blooms, such as the application of a flocculant combined with natural or modified clay. However, the efficacy of local dryland soils in mitigating blooms is unknown for Brazilian manmade lakes. In this paper, we present a bibliometric analysis of the evolution of publications about cyanobacterial blooms and identify records that directly aim to overcome the occurrence of these blooms. Also, we evaluate, through laboratory experiments, the effect of the combined use of flocculent polyaluminum chloride (PAC) and a local soil from the lake catchment (LS), as ballast, in controlling cyanobacterial bloom in a shallow lake of the semiarid region of Brazil. The bibliometric research was conducted with the “Web of Science” database through the search function “TS = ((cyanobacteri* or blue green algae or cyanoprokariote or cyanophyceae) and (mass accumulation or bloom or domina*))”, from 1969 to June 2016. We performed a keyword frequency analysis and quantified the number of records with a restoration approach. Besides, three sets of experiments were performed in three sampling occasions with different bloom compositions and biomass in Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves Reservoir. Our study revealed that studies about cyanobacterial blooms increased exponentially and their quantitative impact on the aquatic sciences increased significantly along the years (F = 97.52; p < 0.0001). The USA stands out as the most productive nation, followed by China and European countries. China has impressively increased its contribution to this area, surpassing the USA in the last five years. Studies about Microcystis and toxins, such as microcystins, are trends in research, due to their ubiquitousness and historical negative consequences. We also emphasize the need for more studies aiming at developing techniques to solve and/or mitigate the issue of blooms. In view of this, our experiments revealed that the use of PAC and LS had a remarkable effect on cyanobacterial biomass in the water column in all samplings, reducing up to 90% top chlorophyll-a concentration. The use of LS alone was inefficient to settle blue-green-algal biomass. In two samplings, the combination of flocculant and ballast exhibited the same efficacy as the use of solely PAC. Even so, the use of LS is important to ensure sedimentation. Combined with PAC, LS was as efficient a ballast to remove cyanobacteria as a commercially available modified clay (Phoslock®). Althugh LS in natura released considerable amounts of phosphorus and did not present P adsorption capacity, it managed to adsorb some dissolved phosphorus after organic matter was removed through muffling. This study shows that LS is a cheap, feasible and environment-friendly alternative to be used as a management action in reservoirs undergoing blooms in the semiarid region of Brazil.