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Overview of U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development’s planned research on Analysis and monitoring in fresh and coastal/estuarine environments
Citation:
Lazorchak, Jim, H. Mash, T. Sanan, T. Jones-Lepp, M. Elovitz, Joel Allen, J. Lu, J. Santodomingo, AND R. Zucker. Overview of U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development’s planned research on Analysis and monitoring in fresh and coastal/estuarine environments. SETAC World Congress, Orlando, FL, November 06 - 10, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this presentation is to overview the measurement methods and monitoring approaches for those projects included in Task 4.01D as they relate to algal toxins and the organisms that produce them.
Description:
Several factors are contributing to the development of the “perfect” Harmful algal Bloom (HAB) storm. For example, climate change associated with elevated temperatures over prolonged time periods, changes in population demographics, agricultural land use linked to nitrogen loading increases, chronic economic stress and an aging water treatment infrastructure all combine to increase the probability of toxins breaking through to consumers’ taps. In August of 2014 the State of Ohio issued a “Do Not Drink” notice after a harmful bloom event when elevated levels of microcystin (≥1 µg/L) were detected in the finished water of a treatment system serving approximately 1,900 customers. This system drew raw water from a location in Lake Erie close to the intakes of the City of Toledo, which provides water to about 500,000 residents. Increases in salinity are also having adverse ecosystem impacts stemming from freshwater HABs and invasive toxic algae. In addition, high biomass blooms are known to have adverse ecosystem impacts such as reduction of the photic zone impacting sensitive trophic interaction and reduction of oxygen levels that kill fish and bottom dwelling organisms. Some non-cyanobacterial freshwater HABs also produce toxins that can kill fish. The most problematic of these is the marine invasive Prymnesium parvum (i.e., “golden algae”) which has caused fish kills in Texas annually since 2001 and has been documented in at least 10 other states. As a result of the human, ecological, and economic impacts of HABs, the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development has established a research program to address issues related to the detection, quantification and monitoring of algal blooms and the organisms that produced them. This research plan has several objectives: develop new or refine existing chemical, instrument and biological methods for the detection of cyanobacteria and their toxins; test such methods in field studies in both HAB and non HAB environments; determine the method(s) that can be best uses as early warning (pre bloom conditions within days to weeks) systems for the detection of cyanobacteria and their toxins. We will discuss ongoing efforts on research projects that include chemical detection of toxins, use of molecular, flow cytometry, mass spectrometric, and microscopic approaches for phyto/zooplankton identification, Phone apps for HABs early warning, and advanced instrumental and hyperspectral image analysis approaches.
