NCCOS’ Competitive Research Program has awarded $15.2 million in funding to support research on harmful algal bloom (HAB) and hypoxia research. The funding supports projects to advance detection, monitoring, forecasting, control, and mitigation efforts across the nation.
HABs occur in marine and fresh water and can produce harmful toxins that damage ecosystems. Hypoxia, also known as dead zones, refers to low or depleted oxygen in a water body where most aquatic life cannot survive. While HABs are naturally occurring, the frequency and severity of the blooms have increased in recent years.
Exposure to algal toxins through eating seafood, drinking contaminated water, or recreation near contaminated air and water can harm human health. In some cases exposure has resulted in severe illness and death. A single HAB event can cost millions of dollars annually through lost tourism, damaged fisheries, and water treatment costs, and losses to other businesses.
Through its National Competitive HAB programs, NCCOS will invest $8.3 million to continue 39 successful HAB and hypoxia research projects and $6.6 million in seven new research projects. NCCOS also awarded $255K to support a cross-NOAA project for near-real-time detection and measurement of toxins in coastal and remote waters. These projects complement ongoing efforts within NOAA to enhance HAB research capabilities.
The ongoing research projects have deepened our understanding of bloom development and toxin production, helping us improve the detection of blooms, better monitor the size and movement of a bloom and advance our forecast capabilities. This investment will continue that important research, including the expansion of work across Alaska, which has seen a recent increase in the frequency of HABs which threaten food security.
The eight newly funded projects will research HABs in Florida, Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, and Louisiana, and focus on:
- Developing estimated costs and benefits of combined HAB control and mitigation interventions along Florida’s Gulf Coast
- Advancing understanding of HAB impacts on Alaska Native communities and developing new directions for research, monitoring, and mitigation across coastal Alaska
- Understanding the distribution and impact of unprecedented cyanobacterial blooms and their toxins in estuaries within the Alaskan Arctic circle
- Identifying HAB toxin accumulation, exposure risks, and impacts in Alaskan Arctic marine food resources and share findings with Alaskan communities
- Creating a model to support toxin prediction in Lake Erie
- Assessing how nitrogen pollution and ocean acidification affect HAB development and toxicity in the Long Island Sound and surrounding embayments in Connecticut
- Modeling how HAB toxins move up the food chain and how long toxins remain in fish and shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia and Barataria Bay, Louisiana
- Assessing the capability of autonomous vehicles to provide near-real time detection and measurement of toxins in coastal and remote waters of Lake Huron, the Bering Strait, and Florida
NCCOS’ competitive research program is investing in a comprehensive range of projects to advance our nation’s ability to observe, monitor, forecast and manage blooms and hypoxia to safeguard communities and economies from harmful algal blooms and hypoxia.
This work is authorized by the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) 33 U.S.C. §§ 4001 et seq.