Keeping an eye on problem microalgae
Dr. Hugh MacIntyre, DISL Senior Marine Scientist

	Volunteer Coordinator and DISL PhD student Lucie Novoveska (right) and volunteer John Dismukes discuss identification at the microscope. (Photo by H. MacIntyre)

Visitors to Alabama’s beaches in October 2005 complained of itching skin and something in the air that made them cough. The culprit was a tiny organism, the single-celled dinoflagellate Karenia brevis, which sometimes wages biological warfare on a microscopic scale by producing a neurotoxin. Karenia is only a few thousandths of an inch in diameter but when conditions are right, it can become so abundant that it discolors the sea along miles of coastline. The condition is called a harmful algal bloom (HAB) or Red Tide, and it can kill fish and make swimming or walking on the beach an unpleasant experience for humans. (Auburn fans please note: it’s Red, not Crimson Tide, that is an environmental problem.) Karenia is not the only toxic microalga in our waters and keeping an eye on the little beasts is in everyone’s interest.

The presence of HABs is monitored year-round by the Alabama Departments of Public Health, Environmental Management and Conservation and Natural Resources and by the Microalgal Lab at DISL.  The group’s reach has been extended recently by the formation of the Alabama Volunteer Microalgal Monitoring Network, a group of citizens who have undergone training in identification of HABs and who have started to monitor the populations in their own backyards.  Participants include members of the Little Lagoon Preservation Society and Wolf Bay Watershed Watch.  The effort is an extension of the Phytoplankton Monitoring Network, a program started in the Carolinas by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  NOAA provided the sampling equipment and the initial training in a one-day workshop held by Coordinator Allison Sill at DISL in June.  The volunteers report their findings to NOAA, where they are logged in a database at http://www.chbr.noaa.gov/pmn/data.htm.

NOAA Program Coordinator Alison Sills (3rd from left) trains volunteers in the use of a plankton net for sampling off the DISL dock. (Photo by H. MacIntyre)
 

	Aerial photograph of a discolored water during dense microalgal bloom along the shore near Gulf Shores. The species responsible was non-toxic, so posed no risk to the bathers. Photo by John Dindo.

As Volunteer Coordinator, Ms. Novoveska helps the volunteers to identify the microalgae in their samples.  She and Mr. Stapleton are building a library of micrographs of both HABs and the non-toxic species to aid this.  Because HABs are often associated with high levels of plant nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the water, the Microalgal Lab is further supporting the monitoring by measuring nutrient concentrations in the volunteer samples.  All the data will be available on our website, http://habs.disl.org, along with information on HABs in local waters (including the ones pictured here), instructions on collecting samples if you think a HAB is occurring, and more.  The website is expected to be available September 30; we will continue to update over time, so bookmark it and come back.

A chain of the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia seriata, one of several species that are common in Alabama waters. Pseudo-nitzschia can produce a neurotoxin that is responsible for Amnesiac Shellfish Poisoning. Although this the toxin has caused marine mammal and human fatalities in other parts of the USA and Canada, there is no evidence of the toxin causing health problems in Alabama. Photo by Lucie Novoveska..

The dinoflagellate Karlodinium veneficum is closely related to the more familiar Red Tide genus Karenia, and like Karenia can produce a potent toxin Unlike Karenia, it prefers growing at the salinities found in estuaries and inland bays. It has caused fish-kills in Alabama waters. Photo by Lucie Novoveska.