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More on iron or rust

Scientists discover 'ironclad' green solution to combat toxic blue-green algae

New UAlberta study has successfully tested a new treatment for lakes that experience harmful algal blooms by using iron to inhibit the release of phosphorus in lake sediment
Kristy Condon - 26 February 2016

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"There is a great need for strategies to deal with harmful algal blooms, so we conducted this experiment see if we could use iron to lock up the nutrients that algae need to grow," says Diane Orihel, freshwater ecologist and lead author on the study. The theory was that adding iron to lakes would keep a greater amount of phosphorus down in the sediment and thus not available in the water. Since phosphorus is an important nutrient for the problematic blue-green algae, the result would be an improvement in water quality.

To test this theory, ...”

“ While iron treatments have been conducted before in other countries, this is the first published study of iron treatment in a Canadian lake.

"Most of the lakes in Alberta are deficient in iron just based on the natural geology of the province, and iron is a very important binder of phosphorus in lake sediments," explains Vinebrook. "This treatment is a way of remediating lakes with a compound that's naturally occurring in the system. Whereas a lot of other places advocate adding an exotic kind of chemical to the lake, iron is more of a green solution."...


“ Orihel cautions that this treatment, while successful, should be used in conjunction with ...”

https://www.ualberta.ca/science/news...een-algae.html