Multiple Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) (K. brevis) data sets were obtained for this data layer, including Harmful Algal BloomS Observing System data (HABSOS) from NCEI (1953-2018) and the NOAA HAB Operational Forecast System Dataset (2007-2018). Data includes samples from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), and the HAB Monitoring Database. Data were combined and reviewed for erroneous entries. Duplicate data from the resulting database were deleted, leaving a total of 155,307 observations. For the purpose of this K. brevis layer, only data from 2000-2018 were used due to sampling biases. An 8 square kilometer hexagonal grid was created covering the Gulf of Mexico and eastern Florida. Each year between 2000-2018 was evaluated separately. If a grid cell contained an observation that registered a value of over 100,000 cells/L (the lethal toxicity level for finfish), the grid cell received a value of '1‘. All other grid cells received a value of '0’ to represent observations below the lethal level of concern to fish. After all years were evaluated, the values for each year were totaled to obtain a resulting frequency value for that grid cell, representing the number of years that grid cell had values greater than or equal to 100,000 cells/L for the years 2000-2018.

Harmful algal blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis, have caused massive fish kills in the Gulf of Mexico since the 1500's, with most occurrences on the west coast of Florida. In 1996, the list of states that have experiences natural resource, public health and economic impacts related to this organism expanded, with the addition of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, to include all the Gulf-coast states and North Carolina. Estimates of economic impacts to Florida and North Carolina from two moderate intensity blooms ranged from 15 to 25 million dollars respectively. The harmful impacts caused by K. brevis occur only when cell concentrations increase significantly above low background concentrations that are present year-round in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Once a bloom has developed offshore in typically oligotrophic waters, cell concentrations at the 105 level can be maintained for months. During 21 of the past 22 years, red tide blooms have been observed within the region between Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor. The key to understanding any HAB lies in knowing how one algal species has adapted and come to dominate in its particular realm of physical, biological and chemical conditions. Our ability to predict initiation, maintenance, and dispersal of blooms on the Florida shelf has been severely limited by the lack of a quantitative description, or model, of their population dynamics and the physical, biological and chemical regime in which they are embedded. The modeling components of this project will incorporate the quantitative description of blooms and their surrounding environment provided by the field and laboratory portions of this project. The field component will employ a set of monthly hydrographic transects.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are overgrowths of algae or cyanobacteria in water and can be harmful to humans and animals directly via toxin exposure or indirectly via changes in water quality and related impacts to ecosystems services, drinking water characteristics, and recreation. While HABs occur frequently throughout the United States, the driving conditions behind them are not well understood, especially in flowing waters. In order to facilitate future national model development and characterization of HABs, this data release publishes a synthesized and cleaned collection of HABs-related water quality and quantity data for river and stream sites across the United States. It includes nutrients, major ions, sediment, physical properties, streamflow, chlorophyll and other types of water data. This data release contains files of harmonized data from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS). Continuous sensor data for 132 parameters (35 of which returned data) between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2022 were downloaded from NWIS programmatically. All data were harmonized into a shared format and grouped by generic parameters; data are in files named "daily_{parameter_grp}.csv", and the "pcode_group_xwalk.csv" maps parameter codes to parameter groups. Lastly, we include a "site_metadata.csv" containing site identification and location information for all sites with water quality and quantity data, and mappings to the National Hydrography Dataset flowlines where available. This work was completed as part of the USGS Proxies Project, an effort supported by the Water Mission Area (WMA) Water Quality Processes program to develop estimation methods for PFAS, harmful algal blooms, and metals, at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are overgrowths of algae or cyanobacteria in water and can be harmful to humans and animals directly via toxin exposure or indirectly via changes in water quality and related impacts to ecosystems services, drinking water characteristics, and recreation. While HABs occur frequently throughout the United States, the driving conditions behind them are not well understood, especially in flowing waters. In order to facilitate future national model development and characterization of HABs, this data release publishes a synthesized and cleaned collection of HABs-related water quality and quantity data for river and stream sites across the United States. It includes nutrients, major ions, sediment, physical properties, streamflow, chlorophyll and other types of water data. This data release contains files of harmonized data from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS). Continuous sensor data for 132 parameters (35 of which returned data) between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2022 were downloaded from NWIS programmatically. All data were harmonized into a shared format and grouped by generic parameters; data are in files named "daily_{parameter_grp}.csv", and the "pcode_group_xwalk.csv" maps parameter codes to parameter groups. Lastly, we include a "site_metadata.csv" containing site identification and location information for all sites with water quality and quantity data, and mappings to the National Hydrography Dataset flowlines where available. This work was completed as part of the USGS Proxies Project, an effort supported by the Water Mission Area (WMA) Water Quality Processes program to develop estimation methods for PFAS, harmful algal blooms, and metals, at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Phytoplankton species abundance (cell/L) and oceanographic conditions (temperature, salinity, chlorophylle-a (mg/m³) for some years and nutrient content (mmol/m³)) at stations of the Harmful Algae Monitoring Programme (HAMP) from1994 to 2016. The layer presents the station positions of the HAMP. Two files are attached to each station: one containing the cell counts and the second the oceanographic conditions. Purpose The summer growth of many toxic and harmful microalgae species poses a serious threat for the public health and commercial or recreational exploitation of some marine species. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) initiated the Harmful Algae Monitoring Programme (HAMP) in 1989 in order to complete the monitoring program for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). Under the responsibility of Maurice-Lamontagne Institute scientists, the HAMP is to monitor, by means of a coastal station network, the natural occurrence of toxic and harmful algae in the St. Lawrence in order to determine their spatio-temporal distribution and the environmental conditions leading to their bloom. The network is made up of 11 coastal stations which are sampled every week from April to November and which are established along Quebec eastern shores. It extends from Tadoussac to Tête-à-la-Baleine on the St. Lawrence north shore and from Sainte-Flavie to Carleton on the south shore along the Gaspé peninsula. Another station is located in Havre-Aux-Maisons, Magdalen Islands. The HAMP was discontinued in 2010 but opportunistic samplings are still done at some stations. Additional information The sampling and analysis protocol is described in details in the following publication apart from the fact that the number of identified and counted species significantly has been increasing with time. Phytoplankton samples are preserved in a lugol solution. Blasco D., M. Levasseur, R. Gélinas, R. Larocque, A.D. Cembella, B. Huppertz et E. Bonneau.1998. Monitorage du phytoplancton toxique et des toxines de type IPM dans les mollusques du Saint-Laurent: 1989 à 1994. Rapp. stat. can. hydrogr. sci. océan. 15 1 : x i-117 p.

HABSOS (Harmful Algal BloomS Observing System) is a data collection and distribution system for harmful algal bloom (HAB) information in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal of HABSOS is to provide environmental managers, scientists, and the public with a data driven resource for HAB events. Cell counts and environmental information are combined into a single product and distributed using the HABSOS Mapping System. HABSOS strives to provide the most accurate picture of harmful algal bloom location and quantity by using the latest sample data available. This dataset contains data from Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, as well as data along the Florida Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico and along the eastern coast of Florida in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most ecologically and economically valuable marine ecosystems in the world and is affected by a variety of natural and anthropogenic phenomena including climate, hurricanes, coastal development, agricultural runoff, oil spills, and fishing. These complex and interacting stressors, together with the highly dynamic nature of this ecosystem, present challenges for the effective management of its resources. We analyze a compilation of over 100 indicators representing physical, biological, and economic aspects of the Gulf of Mexico and find that an ecosystem-wide reorganization occurred in the mid-1990s. Further analysis of fishery landings composition data indicates a major shift in the late 1970s coincident with the advent of US national fisheries management policy, as well as significant shifts in the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s. These latter shifts are aligned temporally with changes in a major climate mode in the Atlantic Ocean: the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). We provide an explanation for how the AMO may drive physical changes in the Gulf of Mexico, thus altering higher-level ecosystem dynamics. The hypotheses presented here should provide focus for further targeted studies, particularly in regard to whether and how management should adjust to different climate regimes or states of nature. Our study highlights the challenges in understanding the effects of climatic drivers against a background of multiple anthropogenic pressures, particularly in a system where these forces interact in complex and nonlinear ways.

Interactions between bacteria and species of harmful and/or toxic algae are potentially important factors affecting both the population dynamics and toxicity of these algae. Recent reports of bacteria lethal to certain harmful algal bloom (HAB) species, coupled with a rapidly evolving interest in attempting to minimize the adverse effects of HABs through various prevention, control, and mitigation strategies, has focused attention on defining the role of algicidal bacteria in bloom termination. The aim of the present study was to determine if algicidal bacteria active against Karenia brevis, a dinoflagellate responsible for frequent and protracted red tides in the Gulf of Mexico, are present in the waters of the west Florida shelf. To date we have detected one algicidal bacterium from samples obtained during ECOHAB-Florida cruises and we are continuing this effort. A taxon-specific 16S rRNA probe was developed for a previously isolated algicidal strain, 41-DBG2, and we have begun to screen water samples for its presence using fluorescent in-situ hybridization. In addition, we have employed denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to characterize the diversity of the ambient microbial assemblages and to visualize the band characteristic of strain 41-DBG2. This band can then be analyzed further by excising and sequencing. Our screening results to date have yielded negative results on all but one of the field samples tested, which was positive with the rRNA probe. These largely negative findings may not be unexpected due to the marked temporal and spatial separation of the original algicidal bacterial isolation and the water samples being screened. Future efforts will focus on isolating algicidal bacteria from the same bloom event as the samples for screening are obtained, thereby increasing the likelihood of detecting algicidal strains and permitting a more effective analysis of their population dynamics.

As part of Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA), Twelve quadrats were sampled along 2 consecutively-placed, 25m transect lines, conducted at 2 sites at Pathfinder Reef in the Marianas Archipelago from 3 September - 1 October 2005, aboard the NOAA ship Oscar Elton Sette, during the Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) Cruise OES0511. Raw survey data included genus presence and relative abundance, and voucher specimens. Detailed taxonomic analyses of voucher specimens are presented.