who recently published a study<\/a> examining the phenomenon.<\/p>\nIn 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\u2019s natural springs.<\/p>\n
A team of UF\/IFAS researchers conduct a survey at a site along the Gilchrist Blue Springs in\u00a0North-Central Florida. (University of Florida)<\/p>\n
However, the study posits that a declining population of algae grazers \u2014 particularly freshwater snails called \u201cElimia\u201d \u2014 and lower dissolved oxygen levels could be bigger reasons behind these blooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d researcher Dina Liebowitz said.<\/p>\n
Per Liebowitz, in environments with low amounts of algae and healthy oxygen levels, these snails can help to balance the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
UF\/IFAS researcher Dina Liebowitz is pictured diving with algae blooms in Manatee Springs. (University of Florida)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepleted dissolved oxygen supplies can make the snails lose vigor for foraging activity and, even though there\u2019s still plenty of algae to be eaten, their survivability plummets, or they can slink off somewhere else,\u201d the release reads.<\/p>\n
Testing fumes are photographed on March 3, 2011 in\u00a0Ichetucknee Springs, as part of the Elimia study to show three different treatments.\u00a0 Top image is taken above the water to show all three treatments, bottom image is an underwater close-up. (University of Florida)<\/p>\n
In all, researchers say the overall success of snail control of algae blooms depends on three factors:<\/p>\n
The amount of algae initially present<\/p>\n
The size of the snail population<\/p>\n
The levels of dissolved oxygen<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have these balanced ecosystems and the snails are doing what they do, they\u2019re little janitors,\u201d Liebowitz continued. \u201cThey keep the springs beautiful for us, they provide an ecosystem service, and we don\u2019t have to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
[BELOW: Researchers look at community of invasive chameleons in Central Florida]<\/p>\n
Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n
Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Many Florida residents may be familiar with pesky algal blooms \u2014 big, green globs that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1684,1563,6919,28,30,29,2496,554,2512],"class_list":{"0":"post-220333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-features","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-gainesville","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-university-of-florida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}