ORLANDO, Fla. – Many Florida residents may be familiar with pesky algal blooms — big, green globs that muck up many of the state’s waterways and natural springs.
But it turns out that there may be a solution to this perennial problem: snails.
That’s according to researchers with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), who recently published a study examining the phenomenon.
In a release, UF/IFAS officials said that nitrate levels in waterways have been the primary source of blame for why algae blooms have popped off so often in Florida’s natural springs.
However, the study posits that a declining population of algae grazers — particularly freshwater snails called “Elimia” — and lower dissolved oxygen levels could be bigger reasons behind these blooms.
“We had done surveys across eight springs, repeated over a year, that showed a strong negative relationship between the snails and filamentous algae blooms, meaning that there were generally low algae amounts in areas with high snail populations,” researcher Dina Liebowitz said.
Per Liebowitz, in environments with low amounts of algae and healthy oxygen levels, these snails can help to balance the ecosystem.
As such, when it comes to keeping algae at manageable levels, factors like the Elimia snail population and the condition of dissolved oxygen need more consideration by environmental management groups.
“Depleted dissolved oxygen supplies can make the snails lose vigor for foraging activity and, even though there’s still plenty of algae to be eaten, their survivability plummets, or they can slink off somewhere else,” the release reads.
In all, researchers say the overall success of snail control of algae blooms depends on three factors:
- The amount of algae initially present
- The size of the snail population
- The levels of dissolved oxygen
“When you have these balanced ecosystems and the snails are doing what they do, they’re little janitors,” Liebowitz continued. “They keep the springs beautiful for us, they provide an ecosystem service, and we don’t have to do anything.”
[BELOW: Researchers look at community of invasive chameleons in Central Florida]