Photo of the Week: Mitigation of Harmful Algal Blooms

Whether saltwater or fresh water, harmful algal blooms (HABs) are an excessive overgrowth of algae producing toxins that can wreak havoc with the aquatic ecosystem, plants and animals, humans, and even the economy. Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory created a solution with this FLC Award–winning HABITATS (Harmful Algal Bloom Interception, Treatment, Transformation System) project in Florida. HABITATS is a rapidly deployable, efficient, scalable mitigation approach to treat pervasive HABs. For this important work, ERDC researchers collaborated with officials from Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection and other local officials.

Photo credit: © U.S. Army Corps of Engineers