scholarly journals Considering Harmful Algal Blooms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruby E. Jalgaonwala
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Marine Organism ◽  
Harmful Algal Bloom ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Water Ecosystem ◽  
Negative Effect

Problematic harmful algal bloom is wide and tenacious, upsetting estuaries, coasts, and freshwaters system throughout the ecosphere, alongside disturbing human health, social life as well as national economy. Particular environmental factors supports growth of algal blooms, temperature always is significant when speaking about water-ecosystem. Disparity in temperature also found to affect the interaction of physical, chemical and biological parameters so it is equally imperative to consider effects of climate change, as change in climatic conditions supports unwanted growth of algae. Also inconsistency in climate equally contributes to the apparent increases of HAB, therefore effects of climate change needs to be totally comprehended along with development of the risk assessments and effective management of HABs. Increased HAB activities have a direct negative effect on ecosystems and they can frequently have a direct commercial impact on aquaculture, depending on the type of HAB. Causing economic impact also, as there is still insufficient evidence to resolve this problem. Therefore this chapter considers the effects of past, present and future climatic variability on HABs along with impacts of toxins release by them, on marine organism as well as human beings correspondingly, mitigation of HAB with help of suitable biological agents recognized.

Using Fundamental Optical Property Sensors for Characterization of Biogeochemical Materials and Processes in Marine Waters

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey Moore
Keyword(s):  
Optical Properties ◽  
Optical Property ◽  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Natural Waters ◽  
Harmful Algal Bloom ◽  
Light Level ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Biogeochemical Parameters

Over the past ten years, efforts to characterize the optical properties of Earth's natural waters have largely merged with the need to better understand underlying biological and chemical processes. Fundamental optical properties such as light level, absorption, scattering and fluorescence are now being utilized with increasing effectiveness to specify particulate and dissolved in-water components in a wide range of applications, including detection of harmful algal blooms, studying ecosystem dynamics, monitoring the effect of industrial and agricultural pollutants, and understanding carbon sequestration processes in the oceans. A diverse offering of commercial optical sensing products capable for research, routine measurements, and in some cases, operational monitoring are now available. These technologies have provided the scientific community with a set of tools for developing, testing, and placing into practice analytical and semi-analytical methods to infer specific biogeochemical parameters and processes. As a result, new, more specialized sensors are now emerging. New sensors couple basic optical property measurements with processing algorithms to provide specific indicators for Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) identification, carbon products, nutrients, and particle size distributions. The basic measurement methods are described and examples of devices incorporating them are provided to illustrate their use in modern oceanographic research and monitoring.

scholarly journals The Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research (SEATOR) Partnership: Addressing Data Gaps in Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Shellfish Safety in Southeast Alaska

Toxins ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 407 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Harley ◽  
Kari Lanphier ◽  
Esther G. Kennedy ◽  
Tod A. Leighfield ◽  
Allison Bidlack ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Harmful Algal Bloom ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Southeast Alaska ◽  
Paralytic Shellfish Toxins ◽  
Tribal Governments ◽  
Salinity Data

Many communities in Southeast Alaska harvest shellfish such as mussels and clams as an important part of a subsistence or traditional diet. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) of phytoplankton such as Alexandrium spp. produce toxins that can accumulate in shellfish tissues to concentrations that can pose a hazard for human health. Since 2013, several tribal governments and communities have pooled resources to form the Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research (SEATOR) network, with the goal of minimizing risks to seafood harvest and enhancing food security. SEATOR monitors toxin concentrations in shellfish and collects and consolidates data on environmental variables that may be important predictors of toxin levels such as sea surface temperature and salinity. Data from SEATOR are publicly available and are encouraged to be used for the development and testing of predictive algorithms that could improve seafood risk assessment in Southeast Alaska. To date, more than 1700 shellfish samples have been analyzed for paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) in more than 20 locations, with potentially lethal concentrations observed in blue mussels (Mytilus trossulus) and butter clams (Saxidomus gigantea). Concentrations of PSTs exhibit seasonality in some species, and observations of Alexandrium are correlated to sea surface temperature and salinity; however, concentrations above the threshold of concern have been found in all months, and substantial variation in concentrations of PSTs remain unexplained.

scholarly journals Omics Analysis for Dinoflagellates Biology Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bi ◽  
Wang ◽  
Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Liquid Crystalline ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Harmful Algal Bloom ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Shellfish Poisoning ◽  
Omics Technologies ◽  
Metabolic Characteristics ◽  
Essential Components

Dinoflagellates are important primary producers for marine ecosystems and are also responsible for certain essential components in human foods. However, they are also notorious for their ability to form harmful algal blooms, and cause shellfish poisoning. Although much work has been devoted to dinoflagellates in recent decades, our understanding of them at a molecular level is still limited owing to some of their challenging biological properties, such as large genome size, permanently condensed liquid-crystalline chromosomes, and the 10-fold lower ratio of protein to DNA than other eukaryotic species. In recent years, omics technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have been applied to the study of marine dinoflagellates and have uncovered many new physiological and metabolic characteristics of dinoflagellates. In this article, we review recent application of omics technologies in revealing some of the unusual features of dinoflagellate genomes and molecular mechanisms relevant to their biology, including the mechanism of harmful algal bloom formations, toxin biosynthesis, symbiosis, lipid biosynthesis, as well as species identification and evolution. We also discuss the challenges and provide prospective further study directions and applications of dinoflagellates.

scholarly journals Harmful algal blooms and climate change: exploring future distribution changes

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 353-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryony L Townhill ◽  
Jonathan Tinker ◽  
Miranda Jones ◽  
Sophie Pitois ◽  
Veronique Creach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms

A new hydrology: effects on ecosystem form and functioning

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 1377-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Roelke ◽  
Sofie Spatharis ◽  
Simon M. Mitrovic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Vertical Mixing ◽  
System Level ◽  
Hydrologic Processes ◽  
Human Population Growth ◽  
Altered Hydrology

Water cycles are changing because of human population growth and climate change. Such changes will affect fundamental system-level characteristics that in turn will greatly influence ecosystem form and functioning. Here, a collection of papers is offered that furthers our understanding of cause and effect relationships between altered hydrology and various ecosystem properties. Combined, these papers address issues related to inflows, connectivity, and circulation and vertical mixing. In regards to altered inflows, this collection of papers addresses how seagrass bed communities, incidence of some haptophyte harmful algal blooms, and biodiversity of intermittently flowing streams might respond. These papers also address factors that influence connectivity in wetlands, and in the case of a lake and its neighboring wetland, how connectivity between systems can profoundly affect ecosystem form and functioning. Finally, the effects of altered circulation and vertical mixing are addressed as they relate to the spread of some cyanobacteria blooms to higher latitudes. The reader of this collection of papers gains a better appreciation of how ecosystem form and functioning is influenced by hydrologic processes and can conclude that there is a need for continued research in this area to better understand the impacts of human population growth and climate change.

scholarly journals Metagenomic characterization of a harmful algal bloom using nanopore sequencing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter W. Schafran ◽  
Victor Cai ◽  
Hsiao-Pei Yang ◽  
Fay-Wei Li
Keyword(s):  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Harmful Algal Bloom ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Nanopore Sequencing ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Single Genome ◽  
Long Read

ABSTRACTWater bodies around the world are increasingly threatened by harmful algal blooms (HABs) under current trends of rising water temperature and nutrient load. Metagenomic characterization of HABs can be combined with water quality and environmental data to better understand and predict the occurrence of toxic events. However, standard short-read sequencing typically yields highly fragmented metagenomes, preventing direct connection of genes to a single genome. Using Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing, we were able to obtain high quality metagenome-assembled genomes, and show that dominant organisms in a HAB are readily identified, though different analyses disagreed on the identity of rare taxa. Genes from diverse functional categories were found not only in the most dominant genera, but also in several less common ones. Using simulated datasets, we show that the Flongle flowcell may provide an option for HAB monitoring with less data, at the expense of failing to detect rarer organisms and increasing fragmentation of the metagenome. Based on these results, we believe that Nanopore sequencing provides a fast, portable, and affordable method for studying HABs.

scholarly journals High resistance to climatic variability in a dominant tundra shrub species

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria T. González ◽  
Mikel Moriana-Armendariz ◽  
Snorre B. Hagen ◽  
Bente Lindgård ◽  
Rigmor Reiersen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resistance ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Vegetative Cover ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Precipitation Regimes

Climate change is modifying temperature and precipitation regimes across all seasons in northern ecosystems. Summer temperatures are higher, growing seasons extend into spring and fall and snow cover conditions are more variable during winter. The resistance of dominant tundra species to these season-specific changes, with each season potentially having contrasting effects on their growth and survival, can determine the future of tundra plant communities under climate change. In our study, we evaluated the effects of several spring/summer and winter climatic variables (i.e., summer temperature, growing season length, growing degree days, and number of winter freezing days) on the resistance of the dwarf shrub Empetrum nigrum. We measured over six years the ability of E. nigrum to keep a stable shoot growth, berry production, and vegetative cover in five E. nigrum dominated tundra heathlands, in a total of 144 plots covering a 200-km gradient from oceanic to continental climate. Overall, E. nigrum displayed high resistance to climatic variation along the gradient, with positive growth and reproductive output during all years and sites. Climatic conditions varied sharply among sites, especially during the winter months, finding that exposure to freezing temperatures during winter was correlated with reduced shoot length and berry production. These negative effects however, could be compensated if the following growing season was warm and long. Our study demonstrates that E. nigrum is a species resistant to fluctuating climatic conditions during the growing season and winter months in both oceanic and continental areas. Overall, E. nigrum appeared frost hardy and its resistance was determined by interactions among different season-specific climatic conditions with contrasting effects.

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