Harmful Algal Blooms
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| Picture of red tide taken from the NOAA research vessel Ron Brown. Courtesy of NOAA |
The Challenge
Harmful algal blooms (HABs), or red tides, have become a bi-national concern in the Gulf of Mexico, as the perceived number and duration of events has increased over the past two decades. HABs can lead to public health advisories, halt shellfish harvesting, limit recreation in coastal areas, aggravate human respiratory problems, and cause mortality in fish, marine mammals and birds. The red tide species, Karenia brevis, occurs along most of the Gulf coast states, but has been most problematic off the coasts of Florida, Texas, and Veracruz.
The movement of these blooms across large areas is difficult to predict as they are influenced by changing climatic and environmental conditions. This has led to increasing stress on the agencies responsible for protecting public health and providing timely, accurate information to citizens and businesses that rely on healthy coastal waters for their livelihoods. Public health officials and resource managers in both the United States and Mexico require better tools to improve detection and forecasting of HAB events throughout the Gulf.
Through the development of the HABS Observing System (HABSOS) project and the HABS Bulletin, important strides have been made in the detection of HABS in U.S. coastal waters using satellite and in situ data as well as in the communication of HABs events to key stakeholders. However, limited capacity for detection across broad areas exists in Mexico. Leaders from both countries acknowledge that HABs in the Gulf of Mexico could be better addressed through an integrated bi-national approach.
GoMRC Role in the Solution
GoMRC focused on a limited but important set of bi-national outreach and technical activities related to HABs in the first year of the GoMRC project.
A bi-national science and technology working group, focused initially on HABs, was established with GoMRC partners and Mexican institutions centered in the State of Veracruz. This group will work to align HABs activities in the southern Gulf with the activities of U.S. federal agencies in the northern Gulf. GoMRC also established a partnership with the NASA SERVIR and HABSOS programs to help link HABs activities in the Gulf and improve access to HABs and other data on the part of the Mexican Gulf states. GoMRC sponsored the development of a NASA SERVIR portal to support data management and visualization in Mexico and provided preliminary training to representatives from Mexican Gulf States in the use of the SERVIR system.
A second focus of GoMRC has been on the development of a domain-specific search function for Gulf of Mexico HAB-related topics using Noesis, which allows users to query resources such as web pages, data, and publications. The search engine is based on a preliminary conceptual model focused on HAB events in the Gulf of Mexico and understanding ways to manage and mitigate for blooms. This activity begins to address how the ecology of HABs are linked to larger ecosystem processes and allows exploration of hypotheses regarding triggers, mitigation and management of these blooms.
More Information on HABS
HARRNESS, 2005. Harmful Algal Research and Response: A National Environmental Science Strategy 2005–2015. Ramsdell, J.S., D.M. Anderson and P.M. Glibert (Eds.), Ecological Society of America, Washington DC, 96 pp.
Action Plan for Harmful Algal Blooms and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System: Results From A Regional Workshop (pdf)
HABSOS - HABSOS contains data about the harmful algal species, Karenia brevis, that can be viewed online for the past 30 days. The HABSOS Internet Mapping Service (IMS) aggregates and displays data, allowing an online assessment and analysis of HAB events through the integration of in-situ observations, surface forecasts, and satellite imagery products into the IMS. Data layers include:
- Bathymetry and other base layers
- Cell counts
- Meteorological and oceanographic data from satellites, buoys, and models including:
- Chlorophyll a
- Turbidity
- Absorption and scattering
- Sea surface temperature
- Surface currents – speed and direction
- Sea surface height
- Wind speed and direction
Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin from NOAA contains information on wind conditions, chlorophyll levels, and potential or actual bloom events.
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