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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #93999
Title: WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MOLECULAR, CELLULAR, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES OF HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS?

Author
item Millie, David
item Dionigi, Christopher
item TESTER, PATRICIA - NAT'L MARINE FISHERIES

Submitted to: Journal of Phycology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/8/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Harmful Algal Blooms have increased in incidence within the last 20 years. Public health, fisheries and water resource managers require proactive forecasting' technologies to avoid these events. However, our inability to fully understand the genetic and physiological bases of HAB growth impedes such a program. To address this void, the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Agricultural Research Service & Office of Technology Transfer) funded (in part) the one-day symposium, "Molecular, Cellular, & Ecophysiological Bases of Noxious & Harmful Algal Blooms" and the subsequent special issue of the Journal of Phycology. Seventeen eminent scholars from disciplines ranging from advanced methods development to algal molecular, cellular, and ecological processes accepted invitations to speak and submit manuscripts. This manuscript is the introductory paper for this special journal issue.

Technical Abstract: In clear recognition of their concern for environmental quality and human health, the Phycological Society of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the one-day symposium: Molecular, Cellular, & Ecophysiological Bases of Noxious & Harmful Algal Blooms' during the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Phycological Society of America in Flagstaff, Arizona. Seventeen eminent scholars from disciplines ranging from advanced methods development to the study of algal molecular, cellular, and ecological processes accepted invitations to speak. The symposium provided an unique forum for a diverse group of researchers to 1) be advised of the current level of understanding for molecular, cellular, and ecophysiological processes that regulate harmful algal growth and proliferation, 2) delineate how toxins and taste/odor metabolite syntheses reflect molecular-, cellular-, and population-level responses to key environmental parameters, 3) assess current and future instrumental-and molecular-based identification and quantification technologies, and 4) coordinate an enhanced research response to harmful algal blooms. By bringing together researchers from divergent subject disciplines that would not typically have occurred, the symposium provided a forum for increasing communication among key laboratories and has denoted clear avenues for expanded collaborative research.