Synthesis and Modeling of Harmful Algal Blooms and Coastal Microbes Along the Gulf of Mexico U.S. States

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The ability to predict and mitigate the ecological and health impacts of global climate change depends upon the availability of integrated models. In this project, researchers at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami will compile and begin synthesis of archived Gulf of Mexico environmental datasets related to harmful algal blooms (HAB) and microbial pathogens. The research team is capitalizing on six years of interdisciplinary HAB and pollution-associated pathogen research. The primary research focus will be the role of low-mixing areas combined with anthropogenic influences from nutrient-rich freshwater runoff. The goal is to build the database necessary to assess the tole of global climatic change upon the occurrence and spread of HABs and human pathogen in the zone extending from beaches to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.Broader Impacts: The study has high societal relevance and importance because of the well-known and increasing occurrences disease attributable to HABs and human pathogens in coastal Florida and the Gulf of Mexico region. It will also serve as an important resource for further research and public education in the ecology of HABs and human enteropathogens in tropical and subtropical marine waters and their impacts on human health at a time of global climatic change.