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Freshwater Science: A Toxin Forecast for Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Blooms | Ohio Sea Grant

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The Ohio State University

Ohio Sea Grant

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Freshwater Science: A Toxin Forecast for Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Blooms

September 29, 2022 – New research from Ohio Sea Grant, Stone Lab and the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative

NOTE This event occurs in the past
  • Time:Sep 29 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm, 2022
  • Event Organizer:Christina Dierkes | Contact Host
  • Event Category:Webinars | Show Similar

Scientists are currently able to accurately forecast the size and approximate location of Lake Erie’s summer harmful algal blooms, but they still have questions about what controls when blooms become toxic, and how to predict which algal toxins the bloom is likely to produce.

Dr. Justin Chaffin at Ohio State’s Stone Lab is studying the environmental factors that cause Lake Erie algal blooms to become toxic or remain non-toxic, to provide more guidance to water utilities on when they should plan to treat drinking water for algal toxins.

The webinar is free, but registration is required to receive log-in information.

About the Speaker

Justin Chaffin
Justin Chaffin Stone Laboratory, The Ohio State University

Dr. Justin Chaffin’s research interest is Lake Erie phytoplankton ecology with particular interest in cyanobacterial blooms (cHABs). His recent and ongoing research projects include linking experiments and models to predict cHAB toxicity, investigations into central basin cHABs, determining drivers of benthic algal blooms, the effectiveness of data buoys at measuring cHAB biomass, rapid microcystin tests, and saxitoxin production in inland lakes. Since 2013 Chaffin has coordinated with charter boat captains who collect water samples once a week for his lab to analyze, and then the captains get a weekly update on Lake Erie water quality.

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