Cyanobacteria are single-celled organisms that live in fresh, brackish, and marine water. They use sunlight to make their own food. In warm, nutrient-rich environments, microscopic cyanobacteria can grow quickly, creating blooms that spread across the water's surface and may become visible. Because of the colour, texture, and location of these blooms, the common name for cyanobacteria is blue-green algae. However, cyanobacteria are related more closely to bacteria than to algae.
This monograph contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms held in Research Triangle Park, NC, September 6-10, 2005. The symposium was held to help meet the mandates of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act, as reauthorized and expanded in December 2004. The monograph will be presented to Congress by an interagency task force.
The monograph includes: 1) A synopsis which proposes a National Research Plan for Cyanobacteria and their Toxins; 2) Six workgroup reports that identify and prioritize research needs; 3) Twenty-five invited speaker papers that describe the state of the science; 4) Forty poster abstracts that describe novel research.
Forward.- An Overview of the Interagency, International Symposium on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (ISOC-HAB): Advancing the Scientific Understanding of Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms.- A Synopsis of Research Needs Identified at the Interagency, International Symposium on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (ISOC-HAB).- Occurrence of Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms Workgroup Report.- A world overview-one-hundred-twenty-seven years of research on toxic cyanobacteria--Where do we go from here?.- Toxic Cyanobacteria in Florida Waters.- Nebraska Experience.- Cyanobacterial Toxins in New York and the Lower Great Lakes Ecosystems.- Occurrence Workgroup Poster Abstracts.- Causes, Prevention, and Mitigation Workgroup Report.- Nutrient and other environmental controls of harmful cyanobacterial blooms along the freshwater--marine continuum.- Global warming and cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms.- Watershed management strategies to prevent and control cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms.- Cyanobacterial toxin removal in drinking water treatment processes and recreational waters.- Causes, Mitigation, and Prevention Workgroup Posters.- Toxins Workgroup Report.- Toxin types, toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics.- The genetics and genomics of cyanobacterial toxicity.- Determining important parameters related to cyanobacterial alkaloid toxin exposure.- Toxins Workgroup Poster Abstracts.- Analytical Methods Workgroup Report.- Cyanotoxins: sampling, sample processing and toxin uptake.- Field methods in the study of toxic cyanobacterial blooms: results and insights from Lake Erie Research.- Conventional laboratory methods for cyanotoxins.- Emerging high throughput analyses of cyanobacterial toxins and toxic cyanobacteria.- Analytical Methods Workgroup Poster Abstracts.- Human Health Effects Workgroup Report.- Health effects associated with controlled exposures to cyanobacterial toxins.- Cyanobacterial poisoning in livestock, wild animals and birds -- an overview.- Epidemiology of cyanobacteria and their toxins.- Human Health Effects Workgroup Poster Abstracts.- Ecosystem Effects Workgroup Report.- Cyanobacterial toxins: a qualitative meta--analysis of concentrations, dosage and effects in freshwater, estuarine and marine biota.- Cyanobacteria blooms: effects on aquatic ecosystems.- Ecosystem Effects Workgroup Poster Abstracts.- Risk Assessment Workgroup Report.- Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis.- Effective doses, guidelines & regulations.- Economic cost of cyanobacterial blooms.- Integrating human and ecological risk assessment: application to the cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom problem.-Toxin mixture in cyanobacterial blooms -- a critical comparison of reality with current procedures employed in human health risk assessment.