Algal Bloom Occurrence and Effects in Russia

Abstract

Eutrophication caused by the entry of nutrients into a water body may lead to algal bloom. Russia possesses the world’s second highest supply of renewable freshwater resources and has faced the problem of eutrophication for many years. Nevertheless, as far as we know, no general analysis of Russia’s algal bloom situation has been before carried out. We have analyzed mass media and scientific reports about algal outbreaks from 2016 to 2018, which allowed us to determine the geographical distribution of algal blooms in Russia, as well as the major effects of eutrophication. As a result, we showed that algal blooms happened in all major climate zones and all federal districts. Cyanobacteria are the most frequently reported photosynthetic organisms comprising algal blooms in freshwater reservoirs located in the continental part of Russia and in the Baltic Sea. Dinoflagellate dominated blooms are more characteristic for the coastal parts of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The largest number of reports comes from the south of the European part of Russia. However, we did not find significant correlations between state statistics data on factors possibly affecting eutrophication (e.g., population, arable land area, fertilizers, livestock, air temperature, etc.) and the number of algal outbreaks in the regions. Mass media analysis showed that algal blooms attract considerable public attention in Russia, which requires the scientific community to actively participate in solving the problem.