Ecological Informatics
Real-time observation, early warning and forecasting phytoplankton
blooms by integrating in situ automated online sondes and hybrid
evolutionary algorithms
Phytoplankton bloom is one of the most serious threats to water resource, and remains a global challenge in environmental
management. Real-time monitoring and forecasting the dynamics of phytoplankton and early warning
the risks are critical steps in an effective environmental management. Automated online sondes have been
widely used for in situ real-time monitoring of water quality due to their high reliability and low cost. However,
the knowledge of using real-time data from those sondes to forecast phytoplankton blooms has been seldom addressed.
Here we present an integrated system for real-time observation, early warning and forecasting of phytoplankton
blooms by integrating automated online sondes and the ecological model. Specifically, based on the
high-frequency data from automated online sondes in Xiangxi Bay of Three Gorges Reservoir, we successfully developed
1–4 days ahead forecasting models for chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration with hybrid evolutionary algorithms
(HEAs). With the predicted concentration of chl a, we achieved a high precision in 1–7 days ahead early
warning of good (chl a b 25 μg/L) and eutrophic (chl a 8–25 μg/L) conditions; however only achieved an acceptable
precision in 1–2 days ahead early warning of hypertrophic condition (chl a ≥ 25 μg/L). Our study shows that
the optimized HEAs achieved an acceptable performance in real-time short-term forecasting and early warning
of phytoplankton blooms with the data from the automated in situ sondes. This system provides an efficient way
in real-time monitoring and early warning of phytoplankton blooms, and may have a wide application in eutrophication
monitoring and management.