ECOHAB: Mote Process Cruises 1998 through 2000 (NODC Accession 0000529)

Harmful algal blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia
brevis, have caused massive fish kills in the Gulf of Mexico
since the 1500's, with most occurrences on the west coast of
Florida. In 1996, the list of states that have experiences
natural resource, public health and economic impacts related
to this organism expanded, with the addition of Alabama,
Mississippi, and Louisiana, to include all the Gulf-coast
states and North Carolina. Estimates of economic impacts to
Florida and North Carolina from two moderate intensity
blooms ranged from 15 to 25 million dollars respectively.
The harmful impacts caused by K. brevis occur only when cell
concentrations increase significantly above low background
concentrations that are present year-round in the Eastern
Gulf of Mexico. Once a bloom has developed offshore in
typically oligotrophic waters, cell concentrations at the
105 level can be maintained for months. During 21 of the
past 22 years, red tide blooms have been observed within the
region between Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor.
The key to understanding any HAB lies in knowing how one
algal species has adapted and come to dominate in its
particular realm of physical, biological and chemical
conditions. Our ability to predict initiation, maintenance,
and dispersal of blooms on the Florida shelf has been
severely limited by the lack of a quantitative description,
or model, of their population dynamics and the physical,
biological and chemical regime in which they are embedded.
The modeling components of this project will incorporate the
quantitative description of blooms and their surrounding
environment provided by the field and laboratory portions of
this project. The field component will employ a set of
annual process cruises.
Purpose:
1. Model the initiation, maintenance, and export of K.
brevis red tides on the west Florida shelf at different time
and space scales to predict landfall
2. Describe the physical habitat that effects transport and
concentration of K. brevis
3. Determine the sources of inorganic and organic nutrients
that allow growth and persistence of large K. brevis
populations in coastal waters
4. Determine the interactions of cellular, behavioral, life
cycle, and community regulation processes with environmental
forcing factors during stages of bloom development.
5. Determine the production, occurrence, fate, and effects
of brevetoxins in the environment during and after K. brevis
blooms.