Population Genetics of Brown Tide Blooms

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During the past decade blooms of the brown tide microalga, Aureococcus anophagefferens, have devastated the ecology of Peconic Bay and Gardeners Bay in eastern Long Island, New York and Great South Bay along the south shore of Long Island. Blooms of this organism have also been reported in Rhode Island and New Jersey. Economic ramifications of this bloom have included the destruction of the 2 million dollar a year scallop fishery in Peconic Bay. Although studies have elucidated some of the environmental conditions that favor blooms of A. anophagefferens, clear understanding of its biology and comprehensive policy for its control cannot be achieved without understanding the dynamics of its population genetic structure. The goal is to develop Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based molecular techniques which can be used to rapidly characterize the temporal and spatial genetic variation among inter-bloom and bloom populations of A. anophagefferens. The hypothesis that spatially and temporally disjunct Long Island blooms, represent genetically variable populations of A. anophagefferens in which different genotypes are the dominant members of spring and summer blooms will be tested using molecular techniques to assay for genetic variability in A. anophagefferens. These techniques will be used to evaluate the spatial and temporal genetic variability of brown tide bloom populations in Long Island samples. Comparrisons of the genetic relatedness of the Long Island, N.Y. bloom populations to those in Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Texas will also performed.