Ohio’s Experience with HABs
Since the State of Ohio became aware of harmful levels of microcystin in one of its large inland lakes in 2009, officials have been fine-tuning the state’s monitoring, response, and outreach plans. In addition to carrying out the HAB strategy, and revising the strategy as needed, the State of Ohio continues to seek ways to address the root cause of HABs – excessive nutrients that enter the State’s waterways.
HAB Impacts on Domestic Animals
The Harmful Algal Blooms that make it into headlines are generally associated with public waters, and the occasional poisoning of much-loved pets that become poisoned when they visit public lakes. Arguably, however, the biggest impacts in terms of lost labor and income, are suffered by farmers who have to find alternative water sources when ponds become unusable for livestock.
The HAB Experience in Kansas
Blooms occur in many Kansas lakes, but past official attention was limited to those blooms that caught enough public attention, or caused enough impact on economic and recreational activities, to demand state agency involvement. Current Harmful Algal Bloom sampling occurs on lakes where the Kansas Department of Health and Environment receives a formal complaint, as well as, on lakes which are publicly owned or managed, or are private but providing public water supply or are open to the general public for recreation.
Wind Effects in Shallow Lakes
Wind energy drives spring and fall turnover in stratified lakes, brings nutrients from deeper waters into the epilimnion, and transports nutrients and particulate material both vertically and horizontally in the ecosystem. Here we identify effects that wind can have on phytoplankton in shallow lakes, and illustrate with examples of four well-known lakes from around the world.
What Can Genetic Techniques Reveal?
Current genetic tools available for monitoring and identifying cyanobacterial HABs focus on the DNA sequences of particular genes in the cyanobacterial genomes. The surest way to deduce toxigenicity is to look for the presence of toxin biosynthetic genes, and exciting advances in recent years have made this possible for each of the major toxins (microcystin, anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsin, saxitoxin).
Freshwater Algal Blooms & Public Health
The most common human exposure to cyanotoxins is during recreational activities on water bodies with ongoing cyanoHABs. Studies found that persons who were exposed to waters with concentrations of cyanobacteria >5,000 cells/mL during recreational activities were more likely to report at least one symptom during the week following exposure than were persons exposed to waters that did not contain cyanobacteria.
