In the United States, the number of lakes supporting accumulations of toxic cyanobacterial is on the rise. Consequently there is increasing human health risk associated with lake recreational activities as well as the consumption of fish. The physicochemical factors associated with cyanotoxin production are ill-defined at time-scales relevant to cyanobacterial ecology (i.e., minutes to hours). Moreover, in the U.S. lakes provide source water for drinking water treatment plants (DWTP); acute poisonings are well documented, but chronic exposure to low levels of cyanotoxins in drinking water is not. Lake conditions (limnological variables) that support cyanotoxin production are intrinsically linked to the occurrence of cyanotoxins in drinking water because these conditions also influence cyanotoxin removal efficiency by DWTP processes.
In this project, a research team at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (UWM) will use high-resolution sensors on buoys and a new automated sampling device to investigate relationships between limnological variables and the presence of cyanotoxins in lakes and drinking water. Lake Winnebago in the Lake Michigan watershed and a DWTP drawing water from the lake will serve as the model system. The in situ sensors will measure physical environmental variables and algal pigments; nutrients, community composition, and cyanotoxins will be measured in preserved water samples collected by the automated sampler. A zebra fish assay will be used to detect unknown toxins and overall water toxicity. This approach should significantly advance our understanding of lacustrine cyanotoxin dynamics at sub-daily time scales.
Broader Impacts: This project will leverage the support of other ongoing projects, including the NSF Undergraduate Research and Mathematics program at UWM as well as resources, facilities, and services provided by the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network and the Children's Environmental Health Sciences Core Center at UWM. The latter two organizations will disseminate data and findings to the external community, thereby reaching a wide network of transdisciplinary scientists involved in human and ecological health research. The project will provide training and support for a female graduate student and several undergraduate interns.
JOINT FUNDING BY NSF AND NIEHS: The original proposal on which this project is based (R01 ES022075-01) was submitted to the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH/NIEHS) in response to Funding Opportunity Announcement RFA-ES-11-013 , "Oceans, Great Lakes and Human Health (R01)", an opportunity jointly sponsored by NSF. This project is cooperatively funded through separate awards from NSF and NIEHS.
