Resolving the Effects of Resource Availability, Predation and Competition on Brown Tide Dynamics Using Metatranscriptomics

Aureococcus anophagefferens causes brown tides that have severely impacted fisheries, seagrass beds, and aquaculture in mid-Atlantic US coastal waters for three decades. The recent sequencing of the Aureococcus genome, combined with comparative genomic studies, in situ ecosystem observations, and experimental studies have collectively evidenced the importance of multiple bottom-up and top-down controls of brown tides. This project seeks to determine the precise environmental factors that drive the initiation, persistence, and demise of brown tides.