
Great Lakes researchers at the University of Michigan have been awarded a $6.5 million, five-year federal grant to host a center for the study of links between climate change, harmful algal blooms and human health.UNC’s Hans Paerl is a co-PI.
Increased precipitation, more powerful storms and warming Great Lakes waters all encourage the proliferation of harmful algal blooms composed of cyanobacteria.
Also known as blue-green algae, cyanobacteria can produce toxins harmful to humans, pets and wildlife. Though the pea-green summer blooms in western Lake Erie are the best-known in the region, cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, or cHABs, now occur in all five Great Lakes.
“Toxic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms are a growing threat to freshwater ecosystems, drinking water supplies and coastal communities worldwide, and the Great Lakes are ground zero for the climate-induced intensification of these blooms,” said U-M environmental microbiologist Gregory Dick, who will serve as director of the Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health.
The center’s studies will combine observation, experiment and modeling at the nexus of lake science, climatology, microbiology and biomedical science. U-M will partner with researchers at Bowling Green State University, Ohio State University, the University of Toledo, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, James Madison University, the State University of New York, and a Canadian allied partner, the University of Windsor.

More than 28 faculty researchers and dozens of students at the universities are expected to be involved.
Hans W, Paerl, Kenan Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences and Engineering at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences, shares the following about UNC’s role:
“We are identifying which nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) combined with climatic changes are responsible for the development and proliferation of toxic cyanobacterial (aka blue-green algae) bloom, and determining what watershed nutrient input reductions are needed to help mitigate the blooms.”
Read a College Bookmark This feature on Paerl’s book, Climate Change and Estuaries.
Read more details about the larger study, courtesy of the University of Michigan.
Learn more in this Yahoo News story.