Sample sites on Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, Oregon. Lake sites and their geospatial positions were NAL , WBR , EPP , and PEL . Canal sites and their geospatial positions were NCA , ADY , MER , and LRI . Credit:Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a new way to monitor the danger associated with algae blooms:"sniffing" the water for gases associated with toxins.
"This work suggests that VOCs might be used to indicate other important environmental shifts, like the onset of oxygen deficiencies in aquatic systems or domoic acid contamination in coastal ecosystems," Halsey said. "One reason VOCs could be such great targets for monitoring is their volatility," she said."Ideally we'll someday be able to sniff the air above the lake with instruments and see which gases are there duringCyanobacteria are microscopic organisms ubiquitous in all types of water around the globe. They use sunlight to make their own food and in warm, nutrient-rich environments can quickly multiply, resulting in blooms that spread across the water's surface.
"That means we need new and innovative monitoring for cyanobacteria and their toxins," Halsey said."It's super expensive to measure toxins directly, especially when a waterway needs to be sampled and tested weekly over the course of an entire summer." Upper Klamath Lake is one of many Oregon lakes affected by cyanobacterial HABs each year, but not all of the blooms result in toxic levels of microcystin, and the onset and levels of toxin production have been largely unpredictable.
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