UAS the solution to algae blooms

UAS the solution to Algae blooms?

Before I ever even thought about the Drones, UAV/UAS in 2006 I ran into a women at the gym who introduced me to her husband who enlightened me of the evils of NPK, potassium as well as nitrogen and phosphorus. He explained to how after WWII the bomb makers sold the same stuff they used to make explosives as fertilizer. That is why you can make ANFO explosives just by adding fuel oil. He went on to explain how 50 years ago how farming soil was at 9% carbon content and now it’s under 1%. He explained to me that the run off causes dead zones in the oceans and lakes because the fertilizer causes the plankton to super grow and die, sucking the oxygen out of the water creating dead zones where nothing can live. At the time I was alarmed but I was in the mortgage, rea-estate, insurance and financial planning business. Then I stumbled into the Drone/UAS industry and began to learn about precision agriculture and he was sure that Drones would be the solution but I couldn’t figure out how to determine the carbon content of the soil from the air. I knew that with multi-spectral you can determine the chlorophyll content in leaves which would give you an indicator of the overall health of the plant but someone would have to get on the ground and get a soil sample. He did explain to me “Bugs don’t attack healthy plants! Plants need sun light, water and food or fertilizer. NPK sucks the nutrients out of the soil, and causes hard pan preventing moisture from penetrating the soil and causing erosion”. Then I stumbled on ECO-Agri Formula and realized the benefit of how it breaks down hydrocarbons and will remediate the effects of NPK and how microbes produce byproduct from digesting hydrocarbons that is a super nutrient filled fertilizer that replenishes the soil and plants not only perform well with its application but contain higher level of nutrients than those plants exposed to NPK.

What to do about the algae blooms?

There is a possibility of these microbes being able to counter the effects of the NPK but it has yet to be proven but we can prevent further damage. Crop scientist and ag-consultants have devised a method of farming where you do not till the soil but plant the seeds on the same rows as the stalks of the previous season’s crop and spay the fertilizer over it. The theory is that by not tilling the soil, it would prevent erosion and the effects of the Nitrogen based fertilizer running off into the oceans and lakes but it exacerbated the problem because the NPK just runs off with the rain and irrigation. The results is the algae blooms in the great lakes. It was all over the news about Toledo Ohio but my nephew lives in Easton Minnesota and they have the same problem.

GUTC has a relationship with a hydrologist who has sensors which can detect oils spills, salinity content or whatever you want with buoys that emit a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal that can be picked up by a UAS flying over and spectral imagery can detect algae blooms. By deploying these hydrology buoys a fly over with a UAS can determine where the NPK is draining into the water and  can be sprayed on the fields to breakdown the NPK and if it is proven to be effective microbes can be released into the lakes and streams and breakdown the algae blooms.

Safety is the key

This is a safety issue if there is any, these algae blooms are toxic and it is much safer to have a small UAS flying over collecting the data from the hydrology buoys and measuring the algae blooms with spectral imagery than a manned airplane.