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NOAA MARINE BIOTOXINS PROGRAM
Oct.
30, 2003 — Harmful
algal blooms have been recognized for producing toxins since earliest
recorded time "…and the waters that were in the river were
turned to blood. And the fish that were in the river died; and the river
stank and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river..."
However, confirmation of marine biotoxins has historically been elusive
due to non-specific symptoms, the complexity of toxin detection and undefined
levels of impact to affected species. Fortunately, scientists from the
NOAA Marine Biotoxins Programs on the East
and West coasts have been
investigating a diversity of toxins for over a decade.
Harmful
Algal Blooms
Harmful algal blooms, frequently referred to as “red tides,”
result from the rapid growth or physical aggregation of planktonic algal
cells leading to high concentrations of the causative species. Over the
past few decades, the world's coastal waters have experienced an increase
in the number and type of HAB events. In the United States, only a few
regions were previously affected by HABs, but now virtually every coastal
state has reported major blooms, frequently involving multiple species
(Click
NOAA image to the right for a larger view of Major HAB-related Events
in the Coastal United States). A number of factors are being
actively considered by scientists as possible causes for this trend, including
both natural (i.e., species dispersal) and human-related phenomena (i.e.,
enhanced nutrient loading, global climate change and species introductions
via ship’s ballast water). Improvements in monitoring and detection
methods may also be revealing previously unknown indigenous populations.
Harmful
Effects
Algal blooms can exert their harmful effects either through the production
of toxins or via the impacts of high biomass accumulation, such as light
attenuation, clogging of fish gills or depletion of dissolved oxygen upon
decay of the algal cells. The effects of HABs are therefore quite diverse
and can range from human health and economic impacts to fundamental changes
in ecosystem structure and function. Interestingly, of the thousands of
existing algal species only a few dozen are known to produce toxins. These
few species of algae are responsible for producing some of the most potent
toxins known to man. It is important to note, however, that some species
are toxic only when concentrations reach high densities, while others
can be toxic at very low densities — only a few cells per liter.
While some blooms discolor the water — thus the terms "red
tide" and "brown tide" — others are undetectable
even by highly sensitive satellite imagery techniques. Specific effects
of these toxic species include the illness and/or mortality of humans
as well as fish, sea birds and marine mammals who ingest toxic fish or
shellfish poisoned by HABs, the closure of wild and farmed shellfish harvesting
and the economic losses related to factors such as lost tourism/recreation
revenues, clean-up costs following fish kills and medical expenses due
to toxin exposures.
The
primary toxin producing marine algae fall into several
classes, largely dinoflagellates and diatoms, each producing different
toxins and toxic effects. Predominant human intoxication syndromes caused
by these toxins include paralytic, neurotoxic, amnesic and diarrhetic
shellfish poisoning, as well as ciguatera fish poisoning — although
a wide array of organisms at all levels of marine food webs are also susceptible
to toxin exposures. Recently, the dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria
piscicida, has brought new attention to harmful algal blooms in the
mid-Atlantic
region, where it has been blamed for killing fish and causing human
health problems. Most algal toxins occur as suites of related molecules
and often at very low levels, so they can be quite difficult to detect.
Nonetheless, because even minute quantities are toxic, they must be measured
as trace amounts in water, algae, the flesh of fish and shellfish, the
liver and blubber of marine mammals and blood and urine of people. The
development of detection methods for these algal toxins is the focal point
for the Charleston Marine Biotoxins Program.
NOAA
Marine Biotoxins Programs
The
NOAA Marine Biotoxins Programs are located at the NOAA
Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
and the Hollings
Marine Laboratory in Charleston, S.C., and Beaufort, N.C., as well
as the NOAA Fisheries Northwest
Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Wash. Their purpose is to provide
scientific guidance, research and community service on issues involving
marine toxins and harmful algae to promote effective management of coastal
ecosystems and the health of the animals and people who live in the coastal
zone.
History
"Before
1992, the federal government did not expend much direct effort on HABs.
Some funding was spent on a case-by-case basis if a new HAB occurred,
but there was neither a pro-active orientation, nor a significant ongoing
program dedicated to the HAB problem. Overall, federal funding levels
were very low relative to the scope, complexity and importance of HABs.
As concerns about the problem increased in the 1990s, the federal government
began to devote greater attention to HABs. In 1992, NOAA sponsored a workshop
with the HAB research community to develop a national plan. The workshop
yielded a national research agenda and the creation of a Marine Biotoxins
Program in NOAA (U.S. Senate Report 105-357)."
Because of this program, significant strides in understanding the causes and consequences of harmful algal blooms have been made in the last ten years. A defining moment was in 1992, when NOAA sponsored a National Plan for Marine Biotoxins & Harmful Algae. This plan has been the foundation for important research/monitoring initiatives and the NOAA Marine Biotoxins Program, which provides expertise in each of the major classes of toxin producing algae that threaten the United States. The scientific quality of the Marine Biotoxins Program is founded in the expertise, dedication and teamwork of its staff. It is a unique assemblage of taxonomists, chemists, molecular biologists, toxicologists and outreach specialists that form a team of internationally recognized scientists. These teams have worked together for more than a decade, providing science-based solutions and new information necessary for decisions involving the effects of harmful algal blooms on marine animal mortality, human health and the quality of the coastal environment.
Research
Specific
research projects are conducted to address objectives of the national
plan and are reported yearly in a database maintained by the NOAA Centers
for Coastal Ocean Science. The program’s research portfolio includes
the following topics, each of which is available as a pdf
file:
- Taxonomy and distribution of harmful algal species,
- Purification and structure determination of algal toxins,
- Analytical methods for toxins,
- Transfer of toxins though the food web,
- Toxic impacts of HAB toxins,
- Molecular regulators of HAB growth and toxicity,
- Algicidal bacteria and HAB termination,
- Biomonitoring methods for toxins and
- Remote detection of toxins.
Technical information is also provided to managers and scientists at conferences and by publication in scientific journals and technical reports, as well as through collaborative projects and Web sites. The most important results are provided to the public through newsletters and announcement of significant accomplishments, which are made on a yearly basis.
Community
The Marine Biotoxins Program in Charleston also returns coordinated responses,
at both the local and global levels, as "paybacks" to those
impacted by harmful algal blooms. Three established paybacks include the:
Analytical Response Team, South Carolina Phytoplankton Monitoring Network
and Technology Transfer Team:
Analytical
Response Team (brochure):
The Analytical Response Team was established to provide a formal framework
of research scientists from the Marine Biotoxins Program through which
coastal managers can request immediate, coordinated assistance during
harmful algal blooms, related health incidents and marine animal mortality
events. The scientists
of this program supply accurate information in a timely manner, allowing
managers to make informed decisions involving shellfish harvests, life
support for marine mammals, beach closure and remedial actions. The
ART provides assistance on nearly an annual basis to evaluate marine
animal intoxications in California (Click NOAA image above right
for a larger view of Analytical Response Team activities in California.)
and Florida and responds several times a year to specific requests,
including those from outside the United States. The ART uses highly
sophisticated instruments and techniques — rather than animal
based tests — to analyze toxins in minute quantities with absolute
identification down to the most elemental chemical composition. NOAA
researchers are able to measure trace amounts of toxins in a variety
of sources, including water, algae, birds, the flesh of fish and shellfish,
the liver and blubber of marine mammals and in blood and urine of people.
High tech tools used to analyze samples for the presence of algal toxins
include cell based sensors, receptor binding assays, antibody-based
assays, liquid chromotography, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic
resonance. The lab also cultures algae to learn more about the taxonomy
and physiology of harmful species. With the team’s combined expertise
in algal taxonomy, toxicology and toxin chemistry, the ART is capable
of promptly solving most events associated with HAB. Three major
events investigated by the ART were recently reviewed as an NCCOS
monthly feature story, while others include domoic acid associated with
grey whale mortalities in California and in humpback whales on Georges
Bank off Massachusetts just this past summer, brevetoxin associated
with Florida manatee mortalities, brevetoxin in bottlenose dolphin mortalities
in the Florida panhandle, ciguatoxin in monk seals from Hawaii, saxitoxin
in pufferfish from the Indian River Lagoon, Fla., domoic acid in Scottish
scallops, microcystin in freshwater lakes around Charleston, S.C., and
Prorocentrum lima identification off the coast of Maine. 
Phytoplankton
Monitoring Network (brochure):
The Phytoplankton Monitoring Network was established to educate the
public — particularly students — about harmful algal blooms,
while expanding the knowledge of phytoplankton that exists in South
Carolina's marine waters. The program is based on a volunteer network
of schools, community groups and parks/recreational facilities. Volunteers
are instructed on algal identification and sample on a weekly/biweekly
basis throughout coastal South Carolina, reporting their data to researchers
at the Marine Biotoxins Program. These data can be visualized using
an interactive Web
site. Results from volunteer groups enable researchers to maintain
and monitor an extended survey area throughout the year and identify
problem areas to isolate for further study. 
Technology
Transfer Team (brochure):
The Technology Transfer Team provides hands-on training and technology
transfer of new methodologies for the detection of harmful algae and
their toxins to research and regulatory programs worldwide. The team
was initiated in response to its partners seeking assistance in the
detection and identification of marine biotoxins and harmful algae.
Partners include U.S. federal and state agencies, academic institutions,
non-governmental organizations and international organizations. Transfer
of applications occurs through workshops, personnel exchanges and research
collaborations. Through these efforts, the team helps its partners better
understand and manage both public and ecosystem health issues related
to harmful algae and their toxins. Example projects include SE Asia
- Regional Cooperation Program, SW Africa - Nuclear Techniques to Address
HAB Impacts in the Benguela Region and the California Department of
Health Services. The team was recognized in 2002 as recipient of NOAA's
Technology Transfer Award.
The
Marine Biotoxins Program in Seattle, Wash., was awarded the NOAA Bronze
Medal for developing unprecedented partnerships, which has improved understanding
and reduced impacts of harmful algal blooms on humans and the environment.
- The Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) partnership was formed to develop the collaboration and cooperation among federal, state and local management agencies, coastal Indian tribes, marine-based businesses, public interest groups and academic institutions. ORHAB investigates the origins of toxic algae blooms, monitors where and when the blooms occur, assesses the environmental conditions conducive to blooms and toxification of intertidal shellfish populations and explores methods that can be used to reduce HAB impacts on humans and the environment.
- The Ecology and Oceanography of HABs (ECOHAB) Pacific Northwest project is investigating the physiology, toxicology, ecology and oceanography of toxic Pseudo-nitzschia species off the Pacific Northwest coast, a region in which both macro-nutrient supply and current patterns are primarily controlled by seasonal coastal upwelling processes. Recent studies suggest that the seasonal Juan de Fuca eddy, a nutrient rich retentive feature off the Washington coast serves as a “bioreactor” for the growth of phytoplankton, including diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia.
The
Future of the Marine Biotoxins Program
The
past ten years have been full of many exciting new discoveries and this
is in large part the result of planning from the 1992 Workshop for the
National Plan. The next ten years will be mapped out by revisiting the
National Plan in a new workshop to be hosted by the Charleston Marine
Biotoxins Program in the spring of 2004. Within the Charleston Marine
Biotoxins Program the following research initiatives are underway to provide
a foundation for future research:
- New Species of Toxic Algae and New Toxins: New toxins will be described using nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy from Pfiesteria, Alexandrium and Trichodesmium — some of which may yield new potential uses as pharmaceuticals or other commercial applications.
- Discovering the Genome for Toxic Algae: The genome for Karenia brevis will reveal presently unknown genes that regulate harmful algal blooms.
- Capture of Toxins using Molecularly Imprinted Polymers: Custom designed chemical scaffolds (inert matrices manufactured to bind toxins) will be used to capture toxins to monitor if animals or people have been exposed to biotoxins.
- Detection of Toxins using Surface Plasmon Resonance: New ultra-thin gold surfaces will be used in remote detectors for toxin measurement outside the laboratory.
- Defining Toxin Effects using "Gene Chip" Microarrays: Simultaneous screening of thousands of genes configured on a miniaturized surface will define the basis to toxicity and new therapies for toxin-related illnesses.
Within
the Marine Biotoxins Program in Seattle,
Wash. the following research initiatives are underway:
- Characterizing the Basis for Resistance to Toxins: Shellfish have been known to harbor certain marine toxins without any adverse effects. Understanding the biochemical and neurological basis for this resistance will lead to the development of markers for the detection of “clean” or non-toxic shellfish within a population.
- Understanding Effects of Toxins on Important Fish Stocks: Zebrafish models are used to characterize the effects of sublethal concentrations of toxins on the recruitment, survival and reproduction of marine fish.
- Forecasting of Harmful Algal Blooms: Satellite remote sensing, oceanographic moorings and beach monitoring will provide an early warning to managers of impending blooms that threaten the safe harvest of subsistence, commercial and recreational harvest of shellfish.
- Detection of Toxins Using Rapid Field Tests: Transfer of technologies to the coastal tribes and state managers is underway in collaboration with the NOAA Beaufort lab. Immunological techniques for toxin detection provide remote coastal labs with a rapid means of screening for toxins in shellfish and plankton.
Other NOAA biotoxin and HAB activities include:
-
NCCOS
and the NOAA Coastal Services Center,
in partnership with the NOAA Satellite
and Information Service, produces HAB forecasts in the Gulf of Mexico,
based on satellite imagery, data from research vessels and models —
all of which are used to alert local, state and federal officials of
the location and movement of the bloom. - NCCOS’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Science is assessing the impacts of HABs and eutrophication on coastal ecosystems and habitats by leading a national interagency research program on the ecology and oceanography of HABs (ECOHAB), coordinating a national HAB research and monitoring strategy (MERHAB) and developing new technologies for assessing and monitoring habitat degradation. Studies focus on: 1) developing the means to forecast HAB development, persistence and toxicity; 2) developing HAB prevention, control and mitigation strategies; and 3) conducting a scientific assessment of the causes and consequences of Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. Current activities can be found on the following Web site.
- The NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, collaborating with NCCOS, other elements within NOAA and several universities, has developed an active research program on the effects of HAB’s upon fishery and aquaculture resource species, especially bivalve mollusks. The NEFSC has demonstrated harmful effects of dinoflagellates, prymnesiophytes, and raphidophytes upon oysters, scallops and clams; shown pathologies in shellfish exposed to HAB taxa; and recently were the first to discover immune-system suppression in shellfish exposed to both simulated and natural dinoflagellate blooms. Advanced biomedical tools — molecular probes analyzed by flow cytometry — have been applied to this research in analysis of both algal and blood samples. The NEFSC is also completing studies on the ecology of brown tide blooms in northeast coastal waters.
- The NOAA Harmful Algal Bloom Ecology and Physiology Program is located at the NOS/NCCOS Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research in Beaufort, N.C. Its purpose is to offer scientific guidance, research and information on the effects of toxic or harmful algae to resource managers and the coastal community. The program goal is to promote safe and effective management of coastal resources and ecosystems. One example of this group’s accomplishments include successful research on an unprecedented occurrence of the Florida red tide dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis along the central North Carolina coast in late October 1987. NOAA scientists were the first to use thermal imagery from the NOAA polar orbiting satellites to assist in identifying and monitoring this HAB — a technique which later became the impetus for NOAA's CoastWatch Program. Other accomplishments include the ability to provide timely, accurate information on distribution and abundance of blooms, conceptual models of bloom formation and transport and research on trophic transfer of toxins (brevetoxins, domoic acid and cyanotoxins) in critical fisheries habitats and protected species. Currently, HAB activities at CCFHR have expanded rapidly and are broadening to include molecular characterization of HAB-specific genomes, as well as in situ cell and toxin identification and quantification.
Among coastal issues facing the nation today, HABs stand out as one of the most scientifically and nationally relevant problems. Fortunately, NOAA research, monitoring and educational efforts in this area focus on ways to mitigate and prevent future HABs outbreaks.
Relevant
Web Sites
Harmful
algal blooms
NOAA Marine Biotoxin Program in Charleston, S.C.
NOAA Marine Biotoxin Program in Seattle, Wash.
NEW
REPORT EXAMINES CAUSES AND IMPACTS OF HARMFUL ALGAL
BLOOMS IN U.S. WATERS
NOS/NCCOS Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center
National Plan for Marine Biotoxins & Harmful Algae
Analytical Response Team Brochure
The Science of the NOAA Marine Biotoxins Program’s “ART”
Phytoplankton Monitoring Network
Phytoplankton Monitoring Network Brochure
Technology Transfer Team Brochure
Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB)
Ecology and Oceanography of HABs (ECOHAB)
NOAA Satellite and Information Service
NCCOS’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Science
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center
NOAA Harmful Algal Bloom Ecology and Physiology Program
NOS/NCCOS Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research
Media
Contact:
Glenda
Tyson, NOAA's Ocean Service,
(301) 713-3066 ext. 191 or Ben Sherman,
NOAA's Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066
ext. 178