Algal blooms are endangering human health, the environment, and economies across the United States. Rising temperatures and nutrient runoffs from lawns, farms and roads are having a negative effect on freshwater and marine environments, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. All of these factors are causing harmful algal blooms to occur more often, in more water bodies and to be more intense. 

While essential for plant growth, high levels of nutrients facilitate nearly uncontrollable algal growth when coupled with warm temperatures and sunlight. If we follow the nutrients back to the source, we very often find that they originate from industrial and wastewater treatment plant discharges, nonpoint sources (such as septic tanks and stormwater runoff from urban areas, farms and residential areas), and from nutrient-enriched rainfall. Though nitrogen and phosphorus occur naturally and are essential plant nutrients, an overabundance can cause significant imbalances in the water body’s ecology, and blooms are one symptom. 

Algal blooms occur when there is a rapid rise in the volume of algae in a pond, lake or other water body. While these blooms can occur naturally, their recurrence is often an indication of environmental conditions that promote growth, such as increased temperatures and higher nutrient levels (phosphorus and nitrogen). When algal growth becomes unmanageable, algae will change the water to shades of green, yellow, brown or other shades depending on the variety. When it proliferates, the algae typically form a robust blanket that floats on or underneath the waterline. 

What makes algae blooms especially troublesome is that they are often composed of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria are bacteria. They use solar energy and carbon dioxide to grow (photosynthesis), like plants. This bacterium occurs naturally in both freshwater and marine (salt) water bodies and are the result of dinoflagellates (single-cell microorganisms). The threat of cyanobacteria has been increasing for years and with the rise in temperatures is becoming more of a problem. It’s destructive and harms aquatic ecosystems, people, animals, drinking water supplies, the economy, and recreational activities. In fact, it’s a worldwide problem that is becoming worse and requires immediate attention.

To control troublesome algae growth issues, technologies have continued to evolve and are now much more capable of managing a broad range of algae and cyanobacteria. Because prevention is critical to ward off an algae bloom, many organizations are turning to ultrasonic algae mitigation for its ability to act quickly without the use of harmful chemicals.

Environmentally safe

Ultrasonic algae mitigation solutions are significantly more effective when compared to the first systems that came to market more than a decade ago. The latest generation ultrasonic systems transmit more than 2,000 sound wave frequencies to allow for targeting of the most pervasive cyanobacteria. Today’s ultrasonic algae mitigation is an excellent preventive and active remedy to dispel harmful algae blooms. While a premier choice to prevent algae, they are also highly effective at reducing the algae levels in infested waters, helping to return the environment to its natural state.  

Operating in an environmentally safe manner, ultrasonic frequencies are emitted in cycles, transmitting 2024 frequencies over 33.7 minutes in a specially tuned pulse wave. The sound waves impact algae by causing structural resonance. This structural resonance results in the collapse of blue-green algae gas vesicles. With green algae the resonance disrupts the “plasma layer,” significantly reducing or stopping its proliferation. A popular analogy is when an opera singer causes a crystal glass to explode as these sound waves impact algae in a similar fashion. The structural resonance produced causes the gas vesicles to collapse and fall to the bottom of the lake, pond, reservoir, etc. When the vesicles collapse and fall to the bottom they perish as they are unable to resurface and engage in photosynthesis. As blue-green algae decomposes, it consumes the harmful toxins in a fruitless effort to survive. Hence, there is little toxic release during decomposition.  

Approximately 95% of the more than 70,000 species and 2 million sub-species of algae have been shown to be affected by ultrasound. Ultrasonic solutions are a highly effective and much safer way to eliminate the broadest range of algae, including cyanobacteria. In most cases, the technology will preempt an algae bloom and keep it from spreading further as sound waves travel through water to where the algae is located. The expert teams managing these systems have spent hundreds and thousands of hours studying algae, empirically understanding the ultrasonic frequency ranges, and the best placement of appliances for a given body of water. 

Municipalities and governments are actively seeking out algae control alternatives to alleviate the use of expensive chemicals. These groups are deploying these systems globally as today’s state-of-the-art autonomous systems do not require land-based power and are perfect for large bodies of water, including ponds, reservoirs and lakes. The more advanced ultrasonic solutions include IOT and telemetry components as well as solar power to enable all onboard systems to provide years of continuous use, replacing the need for problematic chemicals.