Solving Cyanobacterial Blooms: Accumulated Lessons from Thousands of Field Applications of Lake Guard^® Technology

Cyanobacterial blooms are a bacterial infection of waterbodies that, when left untreated as most are, will intensify from year to year, destroying the ecological fabric and contaminating the water to the extent that prohibits its safe use. For years, cyanobacterial outbreaks have been treated as if they were acts of God that cannot be avoided or contained. They continue to jeopardize the livelihoods and health of hundreds of millions of people by impeding their access to clean water.

The Lake Guard^® technology, which presented herein, is based on a novel floating and slow-releasing formulation. The product requires no training or special equipment. It can be applied easily and cost-effectively to target and impact the floating cyanobacterial aggregates on the water surface.

Following thousands of applications in large water bodies all around the globe, we found that cyanobacteria are effected most when treated while at lag-phase before they reach exponential growth. We also found that early intervention, using very low doses, disrupts the development of the cyanobacterial bloom. Since the treatment targets explicitly cyanobacteria, it directly benefits the ratio between eukaryotic (non-toxic) algae and cyanobacterial populations, giving the treatment a long-lasting effect. Having enhanced the presence of eukaryotic photosynthetic populations, they now serve as a biological buffer, postponing and even preventing altogether - the next cycle of the cyanobacterial outbreaks.

Lake Guard^® is the first technology that allows people to prevent cyanobacterial outbreaks altogether, rather than to suffer from their consequences.