A NCCOS-funded harmful algal bloom forecasting project is providing key information that one day will help scientists overcome the challenges of HAB forecasting and predict when and where blooms may occur. The prestigious Monterey Bay Research Institute (MBARI), a partner in the research, recently advertised the NCCOS harmful algal bloom forecasting project in a press [...]
Seeing the photos from the record-breaking algal bloom on Lake Erie in 2011 was like déjà vu for me. I grew up in the Great Lakes region in the 1960s and 1970s and remember the days when Lake Erie was declared “dead.” I later learned that the green scum that plagued the lake during summer [...]
‘Red tide’ and a loss of sea grass account for some manatee deaths, but researchers believe undiscovered factors are also at play. A record number of endangered manatees are dying in Florida’s waterways. So far this year, 582 manatees have died, more than any year on record, according to preliminary numbers from the Florida Fish [...]
On May 2, 2013, NOAA’s North Atlantic Regional Collaboration Team convened a workshop at the Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region in Woods Hole, MA to explore regional capabilities and needs for ecological forecasting. Long-term science support from NOS’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has led to a Harmful Algal Bloom forecast currently [...]
On April 28-30, 2013, Dr. Robert Magnien of NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) chaired the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms (IPHAB). This year, IPHAB reviewed progress on harmful algae priorities and initiatives in partnership with other international organizations such as International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the [...]
An NCCOS-funded research team led by Dr. Donald Anderson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has deployed an autonomous ocean sensor, called the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) in the Atlantic Ocean off Portsmouth, New Hampshire for monitoring and prediction of New England Red Tides. A key project goal this year is to maintain ESP coverage in [...]
The 2013 spring and summer red tide reason in New England is expected to be “moderate” according to NCCOS’s partner, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), forecast last month. Ocean and weather data from the Gulf of Maine buoys play an important role in this forecasting effort. When developing this new red tide forecast system, scientists depended on historical [...]
In a newly published study, NCCOS researcher link sharks and other top predators with primary producers (benthic algae) in pristine, healthy coral reef ecosystems. “We used chemical signatures of carbon and nitrogen found in the tissues of the algae, invertebrates, fish, and sharks from the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) to trace the extent benthic algae influences [...]