11th International GAP Meeting

Working Group 1: Planktonic Harmful Algal Blooms

Local coordinator: Mike McKay
Assessing the synergistic effects of climate and anthropogenic drivers on the success of distinct planktonic cHABs species (e.g. Microcystis spp., Planktothrix agardhii, Dolichospermum spp.)

Working Group 2: Benthic Harmful Algal Blooms

Local coordinator: Justin Chaffin
Assessing the synergistic effects of climate and anthropogenic drivers on benthic cHABs (e.g. Lyngbya spp.)

Working Groups 1 & 2: Specific aims of both projects may include:

• How do environmental cues promote or constrain the proliferation (i.e., growth and biomass accumulation) of cHAB species in mixed populations?
• How do environmental cues promote or constrain toxin production of cHAB species?
• How do other members of the microbial community promote or constrain growth and toxin production by cHAB species?

Working Group 3: Sinkhole Microbial Communities

Local coordinator: George Bullerjahn
Sink-hole microbial community dynamics of Sandusky Bay – consistent with the karst landscape of the region, Sandusky Bay contains numerous submerged sinkholes. Other than a cursory analysis we conducted on one sinkhole nearly a decade ago, these environments remain unexplored. We hypothesize that the high sulfate and low oxygen conditions existing in these environments support a microbial assemblage unique to this hypereutrophic bay including anoxygenic cyanobacteria using H2S rather than H2O as an electron donor.

Working Group 4: Fluorescence Methods Toward Assessing Productivity

Local coordinator: Ondrej Prasil

WG Biophysical assessment of photosynthetic performance. Samples from WG 1-3 will serve as biomass for experiments aimed at developing new biophysical tools to assess primary productivity.