Simulating cyanobacterial growth in a lowland reservoir

There has been a rise in the incidence of reported cyanobacterial bloom contamination, in England and Wales associated with freshwaters, over the past 10 years. These blooms can, under certain environmental conditions, produce toxins, which can be harmful to mammals. This paper presents a new model of cyanobacterial growth that incorporates the functionality of earlier buoyancy regulation models. The model includes algorithms allowing temperature-correction of the main process rates; loss of colonies; net chlorophyll-a production and changes in colony size.

The model was used to simulate cyanobacterial growth in a lowland impoundment in Southern England for 1994 and 1995. Predicted results were compared to observed data for the 2 consecutive years and the model results compare favourably with the observed data.