Dear colleagues,

There will be two Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) sessions at the upcoming 2018 ASLO summer meeting in Victoria, CDN: (1) Crossing disciplinary boundaries across the freshwater-marine continuum to advance the understanding of HABs and (2) Cyanobacterial and algal metabolites: occurrence, ecology, prediction, and management. The first session will focus on broad HAB research and management solutions, whereas the second session will focus specifically on cyanobacterial and algal metabolites.

If you are a HAB researcher planning on attending the 2018 ASLO summer meeting, please consider submitting an abstract to either session. Please feel free to distribute this announcement to anyone you think may be interested. Abstracts are due 16-Feb-2018; registration can be completed at https://aslo.org/victoria2018/mainunder the registration pull-down menu.

Thanks – and we hope to see you in Victoria!

 

(1) SS71: Crossing disciplinary boundaries across the freshwater-marine continuum to advance the understanding of harmful algal blooms (HABs)

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) comprised of toxigenic algae and/or cyanobacteria threaten global marine, estuarine, and freshwater ecosystems and related services. Their frequency and intensity are hypothesized to increase with climate change and eutrophication. Although HABs represent a significant human health threat, the science assessing their occurrence, fate, toxicity, and risk to public health and the environment remains fragmented among limnologists, marine scientists, toxicologists, ecologists, chemists and engineers. While mechanisms that promote HABs across systems are routinely similar (e.g. elevated nutrients, light, salinity, carbon dioxide, temperature), a unified understanding of the factors that cause these events is lacking. Perhaps more importantly, communication gaps among scientists studying bloom formation and ecosystem effects and those studying the eco- and health toxicology of blooms have hindered effective HAB managements. This session seeks to bring together HABs scientists who study multiple aspects of these events, including their biogeochemistry, chemistry, biogeography, toxicology, ecology, and epidemiology, as well as approaches to monitor HAB distribution, genetic diversity, toxicity as well as transport of intact toxins from inland freshwaters to downstream marine and estuarine waterbodies. All types of HABs studies are encouraged including descriptive, correlative, empirical, and/or theoretical. Given the environmental and health threat that HABs pose to society, we encourage a focus on management solutions.

Session organizer(s)

Bryan Brooks, Baylor University
[email protected]

Jeffery Steevens, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
[email protected]

Alan Wilson, Auburn University
[email protected]

Meredith Howard, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project
[email protected]

 

(2) SS07: Cyanobacterial and algal metabolites: Occurrence, ecology, prediction, and management

Cyanobacterial and eukaryotic algal blooms are increasing in intensity, frequency, and geographic extent in diverse aquatic ecosystems due to complex interactions between climate change and human activities (e.g., nutrient enrichment, hydrological management, urbanization). Many bloom forming phytoplankton taxa have the capability of producing one or more toxic metabolites (e.g., microcystin, saxitoxin, domoic acid) that are harmful to vertebrates, including humans. In addition, some phytoplankton taxa can also produce volatile organic compounds (geosmin, 2-methylisoborneol, dimethyl sulphides, β-cyclocitral) that cause taste-and-odor problems in drinking water supplies. Recent research has shown that phytoplankton metabolites may also serve diverse ecological roles in freshwater and marine systems by acting as photoprotectants, antibiotics, and allelopathic compounds. Although current research has identified many metabolites that are produced by cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae, relatively little research has been completed on the mechanisms regulating metabolite occurrence, precise ecological or evolutionary function in aquatic systems, or how metabolite occurrence and magnitude may change in the future. This session aims to advance our understanding of processes regulating the occurrence, ecology, prediction, and management of cyanobacterial and algal metabolites in freshwater, estuary, and marine systems.

Session organizer(s)

Ted Harris, Kansas Biological Survey

[email protected]

Dedmer Van de Waal, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)

[email protected]

Alan Wilson, Auburn University
[email protected]

Frances Pick, University of Ottawa

[email protected]

Peter Leavitt, University of Regina

[email protected]

Susie Wood, Cawthron Institute

[email protected]