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Kentucky Ag News Headlines |
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DEQ Funds Universities to Address Harmful Algal Blooms
Kentucky Ag Connection - 08/26/2016
To increase understanding of harmful algal blooms (HAB) throughout the Great Lakes and develop an effective monitoring strategy, the DEQ today awarded Oakland and Grand Valley State Universities more than $240,000 in technology grants.
"Harmful algal blooms pose a real danger to the Great Lakes as we saw in August 2014, when a severe bloom in the western basin of Lake Erie entered the drinking water supplies in and around Toledo," said DEQ Director Heidi Grether. "The DEQ is
committed to raising awareness of and addressing HABs in the waters of the Great Lakes region and we are pleased to enlist university talents to address this issue."
The funding will go to projects that promote the use of innovative technologies to improve the ability to identify, monitor and assess the occurrence of HAB and associated cyanotoxins in Michigan's surface waters.
Grand Valley State University was awarded $83,573 to develop new monitoring methods to rapidly detect the presence of toxin-producing blue-green algae and determine whether they are producing cyanotoxins at the cellular level. The project aims to use
improved methods to better track algal blooms, assist in the development of early warning systems and provide needed information to better understand the ecological factors that cause algal bloom formation.
Oakland University was awarded $158,314 to develop statewide HAB hazard maps using existing land use information and cyanotoxin data, and to continually update these maps using multiple, emerging analytical technologies. The project also will explore the
development and use of a smartphone app that can be used by citizen volunteers to detect HAB. This grant is a collaborative project among researchers from Oakland University, Wayne State University, Lake Superior State University, and Northern Kentucky
University.
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