Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring Data for Puget Sound (SoundToxins: Partnership for Enhanced Monitoring and Emergency Response to Harmful Algal Blooms and Vibrio in Puget Sound)

Toxic outbreaks of species of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium have become pervasive in the Puget Sound region over the last two decades, escalating the threats to human health, but a newer algal threat from the toxigenic diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia, appears poised to repeat this toxic invasion. Increasing anthropogenic influences have been suggested to facilitate and exacerbate these harmful algal blooms (HABs), but there is preliminary evidence that advection of seed blooms from outside Puget Sound instead may be responsible for some of these toxic outbreaks.

Attaining a predictive capability for these bloom events in Puget Sound and identifying steps to mitigate their effects depends on quickly gaining an understanding of the conditions that promote bloom initiation, maintenance, and transport. The existing monitoring and management program for paralytic shellfish toxins in Puget Sound is not designed for, or capable of monitoring these increasing alternate HAB outbreaks, nor can it ascertain what steps might be taken to potentially limit the spread of these alternate HABs throughout Puget Sound, as occurred with Alexandrium. To better attain these goals, the Partnership for Enhanced Monitoring and Emergency Response to Harmful Algal Blooms and Vibrio in Puget Sound (SoundToxins) is proposed as a regional forum for collaboration and cooperation among federal, state and local agencies, coastal tribes, marine resource-based businesses, public interest groups, and academic institutions to manage the prediction of and response to the above HAB species and Vibrio species in Puget Sound using a practical blend of emerging and proven technologies.

The project objectives are as follows:

1. Identify logistically-feasible and management-relevant sentinel sampling sites for studying the early onset and establishment of toxic HABs and Vibrio.

2. Identify the subset of environmental conditions that promote the onset & flourishing of HABs and Vibrio.

3. Determine whether HABs or Vibrio initiate in Puget Sound or develop from seed populations advected into the Sound from the ocean or British Columbia.

4. Coordinate with Vibrio sampling and determine what linkages there are to Vibrio outbreaks and certain species of phytoplankton, including HABs. Dataset contains oceanographic data (e.g. Temperature, Salinity, Chlorophyll), nutrient concentrations, marine toxin data, relative abundances, and cell counts of harmful algal species such as Pseudo-nitzschia, Alexandrium, Heterosigma, and Dinophysis for various locations in Puget Sound.