Artificial mixing to control cyanobacterial blooms: a review

Abstract

Artificial mixing has been used as a measure to prevent the growth of cyanobacteria in eutrophic lakes and reservoirs for many years. In this paper, we give an overview of studies that report on the results of this remedy. Generally, artificial mixing causes an increase in the oxygen content of the water, an increase in the temperature in the deep layers but a decrease in the upper layers, while the standing crop of phytoplankton (i.e. the chlorophyll content per m 2 ) often increases partly due to an increase in nutrients entrained from the hypolimnion or resuspended from the sediments. A change in composition from cyanobacterial dominance to green algae and diatoms can be observed if the imposed mixing is strong enough to keep the cyanobacteria entrained in the turbulent flow, the mixing is deep enough to limit light availability and the mixing devices are well distributed horizontally over the lake. Both models and experimental studies show that if phytoplankton is entrained in the turbulent flow and redistributed vertically over the entire depth, green algae and diatoms win the competition over (colonial) cyanobacteria due to a higher growth rate and reduced sedimentation losses. The advantage of buoyant cyanobacteria to float up to the illuminated upper layers is eradicated in a well-mixed system.