Overview
Project 3 will study toxin release from cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom (cHAB) cells, aerosolization, and transport to test the hypothesis that climate change will increase human exposure to cHAB toxins through ingestion and inhalation. A combined measurement and modeling approach will be used to evaluate the impact of climate-change driven stressors on the distribution of dissolved and particulate toxins in both water bodies and aerosols generated from cHABs. Wind-driven mechanical and biologically driven aerosol generation will be studied. Experimental data and modeling of climate change scenarios, bloom responses, and atmospheric processes will be combined to understand the production, persistence, and transport of particulate versus dissolved toxins, enabling predictions of toxin exposure under a changing climate, thus informing health risks.
Research Team
More Details
Exposure to toxins and other compounds released from cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (cHABs) has the potential to negatively impact human health through multiple routes of exposure, including ingestion and inhalation. In the Great Lakes region, increasing cHAB severity and spatial extent has the potential to impact a large population through exposure to toxins and harmful byproducts. In a changing climate, increased atmospheric CO2 resulting in higher temperatures and decreasing pH within freshwater systems is expected to change toxin concentrations and congener distribution. cHAB toxins can exist as dissolved and particulate forms (intracellular or bound to particles). The fundamental understanding of dissolved versus particulate toxin within and beyond a bloom is not well understood and can impact exposure in the water column or in the atmosphere. With increased wind speeds due to climate change, aerosolization is expected to increase. In addition, blooms release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere that react to form secondary organic aerosol (SOA), a key component of particulate matter (PM), which also negatively impacts human health. Understanding the synergistic relationships within the water column and atmosphere requires an integrated measurement and modeling approach that draws on both water-based and atmospheric studies.
VOC emissions, and resulting SOA formation that will increase particulate matter (PM) levels.
Goals
- Measurements of toxins in and near blooms in the water column coupled with aerosol measurements to determine the extent of toxins and their form beyond the bloom
- Laboratory studies for cultures exposed to future climate conditions (e.g., higher CO2) to determine toxin concentration, form, and congener makeup, and the subsequent impacts on toxin aerosolization
- Lake-based modeling to track toxin concentrations and congener makeup over the course of bloom development and predict waterborne risks
- Atmospheric modeling to couple toxin concentrations and SOA formation to meteorological conditions to determine inhalation risk near to and downwind of cHABs