The continuous, real-time testing of the algae bloom is vital for several reasons.
Or, if they’re growing slow and we think they should be growing faster, we need to find the reason because that’s an opportunity for improvement.” So, it’s a cloudy day, they’re growing slow and that’s fine. “Fundamentally, what we can now say with much greater confidence - is the algae growing slow? That’s because it was cold yesterday. And then what tests are you going to run? Now we have a real-time potential measure of biological activity in the environment. “Not just monthly, not even weekly, but daily, to even establish a pattern. “There was no practical way without having an army of people grabbing samples physically across 300 miles of canal,” Weiss said, adding that it’s impossible to keep algae from blooming in the CAP canals. The probes, powered by solar energy and connected to a computer terminal that sends out data like a cell phone, are essential because drought conditions brought on by climate change - “everything that could make the situation worse is now happening,” Weiss said - can create “extremely problematic” algae changes, and previously there was no way to gather immediate information. Through a partnership with Burge Environmental, which developed the new technology, AzCATI has a half-dozen probes testing the water in the 336 miles of the Central Arizona Project canal system, as well as Lake Pleasant. Just by letting people know when an event is going to hit, they can adjust.”
“The whole part of our sensor system is you can see the problems as they’re coming,” said Weiss, a senior global futures scientist at Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and assistant professor in the Polytechnic School, part of the Ira A. The answer to those questions enables Weiss and his team at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation, or AzCATI, to detect algae blooms in real time in the canal system, information that is critical to homeowners and agricultural farmers throughout Arizona.
“Hey, how are you feeling today?” the probe says to the algae. Taylor Weiss lowers the probe into the bottom of the canal and waits for the conversation to begin. JImmediate information valuable for agricultural farmers