Title: ECOHAB: FLORIDA – An In-depth Study of the Toxic Dinoflagellate Gymnodinium breve to Provide Information for the Construction of a Computer Model to Predict the Initiation, Maintenance and Dispersal of Red Tide on the West Coast of Florida

Investigators: Karen Steidinger (coordinating PI) [1], Gary Fahnenstiel [2], Jack Fournie [3], Jerald Janowitz [4], Daniel Kamykowski [4], Gary Kirkpatrick [5], Jan Landsberg [1], Steven Lohrenz [6], Peter McGuire [7], David Millie [8], Richard Pierce [5], Donald Redalje [6], Oscar Schofield [9], Patricia Tester [10], Carmelo Tomas [1], Francis Van Dolah [11]

Institutions: [1] Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Marine Research Institute; [2] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Lake Michigan; [3] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gulf Breeze Laboratory;  [4] North Carolina State University, Department of Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences;  [5] Mote Marine Laboratory;  [6] University of Southern Mississippi, Institute of Marine Science; [7] University of Florida, Medical School; [8] U.S. Department of Agriculture, New Orleans Laboratory;  [9] Rutgers University, Institute of Coastal & Marine Science;  [10] NOAA, Beaufort Laboratory;  [11] NOAA Charleston Laboratory

Description: This program is part of a larger program called ECOHAB: Florida that includes this study, physical oceanography, circulation patterns and shelf scale modeling for predicting the occurrence and transport of Gymnodinium breve red tides. The physical part of the program is funded out of NOAA and EPA and is operated by the University of South Florida, Department of Marine Science. The coordinated programs provide data to do large and small scale modeling of blooms.

Objectives

1)     Determine the interactions of cellular, behavioral, life cycle and community regulation processes with environmental forcing factors during stages of bloom development.

2)     Model the biophysical interactions of G. breve red tides on the west Florida shelf at small scales (< 1 km) at the physiological level of G. breve’s interaction with its chemical and physical habitat.

3)     Determine the sources of inorganic and organic nutrients that allow growth and persistence of large G. breve populations in coastal waters.

Scope Of Work

We will study, in conjunction with other ECOHAB PI’s, several aspects of Gymnodinium breve photobiology (physiology, photoacclimation, photosynthetic rates, and production) and help define some of the properties of their competitive exclusion (inhibition of other microalgae) that allow HAB formation. These components of bloom dynamics will be quantified for the development of HAB ecological models (by others). Specifically, we will conduct studies of ¹⁴C labelling of photopigments, incorporation of ¹⁴C into algal protein and cellular free amino acids, and cell particulate organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in Gymnodinium breve communities during the annual process cruises in the third and fourth years of ECOHAB:Florida. These studies will be conducted in conjunction with a series of manipulative field experiments (by others) on bloom patches as they are encountered during the cruises. This approach will involve the monitoring of photosynthetic, physiological and growth response dynamics in a Lagrangian perspective under natural in situ light conditions.

Supplemental Keywords: marine, estuary, harmful algal blooms, red tides, ecological effects, population effects, perturbations, trophic transfer of phycotoxins, longevity and stability of phycotoxins, conversion of phycotoxins, oceanography, analytical methods, Gulf of Mexico, seafood safety, public health safety, ecological modeling, small scale modeling, remote sensing, EPA region 4

Progress to Date

Publications: 

Kerfoot, J., Kirkpatrick, G., Lohrenz, S., Mahoney, K., Moline, M. and Schofield, O. (2003) Vertical migration of a Karenia brevis bloom: implications for remote sensing of harmful algal blooms. J. Phycol., in review.

Lohrenz, Steven E., Donald G. Redalje, and Gary J. Kirkpatrick (2001) Optical variability associated with a Gymnodinium breve red tide event off northwestern Florida. Oceanography, 14(1), (abstract).

Mahoney, Kevin L., Steven E. Lohrenz, Gary J. Kirkpatrick, Gary L. Fahnenstiel. (2001) Mie approximation of light scattering by Gymnodinium breve and its relationship to in situ scattering during a red tide event. Oceanography, 14(1), (abstract).

Lohrenz, S. E.; Fahnenstiel, G. L.; Kirkpatrick, G. J.; Carroll, C. L.; Kelly, K. A. (1999): Microphotometric assessment of spectral absorption and its potential application for characterization of harmful algal species. J. Phycol. 35, 1438-1446.

Presentations:

Lohrenz, Steven E. (2002) Optical and physiological characterization of harmful algal blooms in Florida coastal waters, University of Connecticut, Marine Sciences Program Seminar, May 10, 2002, Groton, CT.

Mahoney, K. L., Steven E. Lohrenz, G. J. Kirkpatrick, O. M. E. Schofield, and J. Kerfoot, (2002) Mie approximation of light scattering by Karenia brevis and its relationship to in situ total scattering and backscattering during a red tide event, Xth International Conference on Harmful Algae, October 21-25, 2002, St. Petersburg Beach, FL.

Bai, X., Steven E. Lohrenz, D. G. Redalje and G. J. Kirkpatrick, (2002) Carbon incorporation patterns in vertically migrating populations of the red tide dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis, Xth International Conference on Harmful Algae, October 21-25, 2002, St. Petersburg Beach, FL.

Kirkpatrick, Gary J., Matthew Oliver, Barbara Berg, Cristina Orrico, Mark A. Moline, Steven E. Lohrenz and Oscar M. Schofield (2002) Continuous, real-time determination of hyperspectral absorption of colored dissolved organic material, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Ocean Sciences, February 11-15, 2002, Honolulu, HI.

Kerfoot, John, Kevin Mahoney, Gary Kirkpatrick, Steven E. Lohrenz, and Oscar Schofield (2001) Vertical migration of a toxic Karena brevis red-tide and the impact on ocean color remote sensing reflectance, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Ocean Sciences, February 11-15, 2002, Honolulu, HI.

Mahoney, Kevin L., Steven E. Lohrenz, Gary J. Kirkpatrick, Gary L. Fahnenstiel. (2001) Mie approximation of light scattering by Gymnodinium breve and its relationship to in situ scattering during a red tide event. The Oceanography Society Biennial Scientific Meeting, April 2-5, 2001, Miami, FL.

Lohrenz, Steven E., Donald G. Redalje, and Gary J. Kirkpatrick (2001) Optical variability associated with a Gymnodinium breve red tide event off northwestern Florida. The Oceanography Society Biennial Scientific Meeting, April 2-5, 2001, Miami, FL.

Lohrenz, Steven E., G. Fahnenstiel, G., and G. Kirkpatrick, (1998) Microphotometric assessment of spectral absorption and its potential application for characterization of harmful algal species, Phycological Society of America Annual Meeting, August 3-8 1998, Flagstaff, AZ.

Additional Links:

http://es.epa.gov/ncer/progress/grants/98/algal/steidinger00.html

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