About all that algae

[Luddly Neddite]

Algae In China Covers Thousands Of Miles Of Coast (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

More than 20,000 tons of bright green algae has washed ashore on China's beaches in recent weeks, but there's disagreement as to what caused the massive bloom.

Since its China, they'll probably put it to good use and then sell it to us.

 

[waltky]

El Nino spawns toxic algae blob...

Warm Pacific ‘blob’ facilitated big toxic algae bloom: study
Sat, Oct 01, 2016 - A study has found that unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures helped cause a massive bloom of toxic algae last year that closed lucrative fisheries from California to British Columbia and disrupted marine life from seabirds to sea lions.

Scientists linked the large patch of warm ocean water, nicknamed the “blob,” to the vast ribbon of toxic algae that flourished last year and produced record-breaking levels of a neurotoxin that is harmful to people, fish and marine life. The outbreak of domoic acid, the largest ever recorded on the west coast of the US, closed razor clam seasons in Washington and Oregon, as well as delaying lucrative Dungeness crab fisheries along the coast. High levels were also detected in many stranded marine mammals. “We’re not surprised now having looked at the data, but our study is the first to demonstrate that linkage,” said Ryan McCabe, lead author and a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. “It’s the first question that everyone was asking.”

McCabe and his coauthors explain how the toxic algae bloom thrived in their study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Seasonal algae blooms are common each year along the west coast, but most are not toxic. The scientists found that the algae bloom was dominated by a single species called Pseudo-nitzschia australis that is highly toxic. The algae survived and took advantage of warm, nutrient-poor conditions set up by the patch of water that was warmer at the surface than normal.

Coastal upwelling last spring — a seasonal event that brings nutrient-rich, cooler waters up from the deep ocean — provided nutrients for the algae to bloom into a large population fairly quickly. A series of late spring storms delivered the bloom to the coast. “While temperature isn’t everything, it’s serving as a decent proxy,” McCabe said. “We think there’s a linkage between toxic events along our coast and climate variability indices.” The blob was a one-time event that was not due to global warming, “but we are looking at this event as a potential window into the future as what conditions could look like,” McCabe said.

Kathi Lefebvre, a coauthor and marine biologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said the bloom resulted in the highest levels of domoic acid contamination in the food chain ever recorded for many species. Domoic acid accumulates in anchovies, sardines and other small fish, as well as shellfish that eat the algae. Marine mammals and fish-eating birds get sick from eating the contaminated fish. In people, it can trigger amnesic shellfish poisoning, which can cause permanent loss of short-term memory in severe cases. “This is an eye-opener for what the future may hold as ocean conditions continue to warm globally,” Lefebvre said.

Warm Pacific ‘blob’ facilitated big toxic algae bloom: study - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Toxic algae thrives in warm water...

Scientists Link Toxic Algae to Warm Water
October 04, 2016 - In the northern hemisphere's winter of 2013-2014 an unusual patch of warm water appeared in the northern Pacific ocean. Scientists dubbed it "the blob" and it persisted over the region until this year. At its largest, the blob was about 1,600 kilometers long, 1,600 km wide and 91 meters deep, and temperatures averaged about 2 degrees Celsius above normal.

A Deadly Warmth

The problem was that warm water carries a lot less nutrients than cold water and the practical results of the blob were that phytoplankton in the cold Pacific waters had less food, and that had some devastating effects up the entire food chain. Thousands of sea lions and birds starved to death as fish deserted the warm waters searching for food. But now scientists say warming events like this one can also effectively poison the food chain.

The new work was led by researchers at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and appeared in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The study offers the first definitive proof linking Pacific warm water and an unprecedented bloom of toxic algae in 2015 that closed fisheries along the west coast of the United States.

A Uniquely Nasty Algae

The researchers studied an algae called P. australis which made up most of the deadly bloom. What they found was that warm water makes these cells grow two or three times faster than normal. Under the right conditions they can produce a toxin called Domoic acid which builds up in shellfish that filter sea water, and moves steadily up the food chain becoming more and more dangerous. The toxin can cause gastrointestinal distress, seizures, memory loss and even death when too much of it gets into the bloodstream of everything from dolphins to sea lions to humans. And in the case of the 2015 bloom, NOAA recorded "...the largest geographic extent of marine mammal impacts ever recorded." The impact ranged from poisoned crabs, to convulsing sea lions, and the forced closure of a giant swath of fisheries reaching from Los Angeles to Seattle.

A magnified image of Pseudo-nitzschia australis.​

The economic impacts aside, the real concern among scientists is that as climate change continues to warm ocean water, blooms of P. australis will become more and more common, and a major source of food for humans and sea life, less and less edible. “Species like Pseudo-nitzchia are extremely well-poised to take advantage of background warming,” according to University of Washington scientist Ryan McCabe said. “The fact that they are almost engineered to take advantage of situations like this — warm temperatures and low nutrients — that is concerning.”

Scientists Link Toxic Algae to Warm Water

 

[waltky]

Lake Erie 'impaired' due to algae blooms...

Algal blooms lead to 'impaired' designation for Lake Erie
Nov. 10, 2016 — The state of Michigan is designating its section of Lake Erie as an impaired waterway because of damage to fish and other wildlife caused by harmful algal blooms, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The declaration affects only the section of the lake under Michigan's jurisdiction, which is less than 2 percent. But it was required under the federal Clean Water Act after shoreline monitoring and analysis of satellite imagery showed that the western Lake Erie basin was failing to meet Michigan water quality standards, said Heidi Grether, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality. "Michigan's portion of Lake Erie is small but, in making this determination, we signal the importance of our actions to date and our commitment moving forward to limit the incidences of severe algal blooms that impact aquatic life and wildlife in our waters," Grether said.

Outbreaks of blue-green algae — which is actually a type of bacteria that can produce toxins — have plagued the lake since the 1990s, at times coating large sections in pea-green slime. Contamination in 2014 left more than 400,000 people in Toledo, Ohio, and parts of southeastern Michigan unable to drink tap water for two days. The 2015 bloom was the largest on record — covering an area the size of New York City. This year's bloom was smaller because there were fewer storms that washed phosphorus-laden fertilizers into the lake. But toxicity levels were higher, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Michigan, Ohio and the Canadian province of Ontario agreed in 2015 to seek a 40 percent cut in phosphorus runoff into the lake by 2015. They are developing plans to meet the goal, focusing primarily on preventing overflows from municipal sewage treatment plants and encouraging farmers to use practices that prevent manure and fertilizers from flowing into tributary rivers. A finding that a water body is impaired can lead to a federal order for stricter pollution controls, including a maximum amount of a contaminant that can exist in the water and regulation of industries and others who cause the pollution.

But for now, Michigan officials are not developing such a plan, known as a "Total Maximum Daily Load" or TMDL blueprint. Instead, they will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to give the agreement between the two states and Ontario time to work. "We are always looking for more collaborative, voluntary approaches to trying to solve these problems," Grether said, adding that using a TMDL would be "like taking a sledgehammer when you might need a pencil."

Algal blooms lead to 'impaired' designation for Lake Erie