title: Modeling the impact of awareness on the mitigation of algal bloom in a lake.
abstract: The proliferation of algal bloom in water bodies due to the enhanced concentration of nutrient inflow is becoming a global issue. A prime reason behind this aquatic catastrophe is agricultural runoff, which carries a large amount of nutrients that make the lakes more fertile and cause algal blooms. The only solution to this problem is curtailing the nutrient loading through agricultural runoff. This could be achieved by raising awareness among farmers to minimize the use of fertilizers in their farms. In view of this, in this paper, we propose a mathematical model to study the effect of awareness among the farmers of the mitigation of algal bloom in a lake. The growth rate of awareness among the farmers is assumed to be proportional to the density of algae in the lake. It is further assumed that the presence of awareness among the farmers reduces the inflow rate of nutrients through agricultural runoff and helps to remove the detritus by cleaning the bottom of the lake. The results evoke that raising awareness among farmers may be a plausible factor for the mitigation of algal bloom in the lake. Numerical simulations identify the most critical parameters that influence the blooms and provide indications to possibly mitigate it.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India. akmisra_knp@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India.
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Matematica "Giuseppe Peano", Università di Torino, via Carlo Alberto 10, 10123, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Ezio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Venturino
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D005068:Eutrophication / Q000187:drug effects; D005308:Fertilizers / Q000633:toxicity; D060106:Lakes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D005308:Fertilizers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Algal bloom; Awareness; Mathematical model; Sensitivity analysis; Stability