2007 Taihu Lake Blue-green Algae Blooms
Brief Description
The 2007 Taihu Lake cyanobacteria pollution incident occurred in May and June 2007, when a serious cyanobacteria bloom outbreak in Taihu Lake, Jiangsu Province, China, causing contamination of tap water throughout Wuxi, a major city next to Taihu Lake.
Investigation and Causes
Only 30% of fertilizer can really be absorbed by crops. In other words, nearly 70% of the fertilizer enters water bodies with surface runoff.
It has been suggested that 50% of the total nitrogen pollution and 48% of the total phosphorus pollution discharged into Taihu Lake is caused by fertilizer runoff
Most of them originate from agricultural areas in the upper western part of Taihu Lake.
Fertilizer application per unit area reaches more than 500 kg per hectare (world's accepted maximum is 225 kg/ha)
Land use map of the Taihu Lake Basin during 1979-2010