Binational collaboration to study Gulf of Mexico's harmful algae

Abstract

Blooms of the toxic marine dinoflagellate Karenia brevis cause massive fish kills and other public health and economic problems in coastal waters throughout the Gulf of Mexico [Steidinger, 2009]. These harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a gulf‐wide problem that require a synoptic observing system for better serving decision‐making needs. The major nutrient sources that initiate and maintain these HABs and the possible connectivity of blooms in different locations are important questions being addressed through new collaborations between Mexican and U.S. researchers and government institutions. These efforts were originally organized under the U.S./Mexico binational partnership for the HABs Observing System (HABSOS), led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Gulf of Mexico Program (EPAGMP) and several agencies in Veracruz, Mexico, since 2006. In 2010 these efforts were expanded to include other Mexican states and institutions with the integrated assessment and management of the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem (GoMLME) program sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Scaling Up From Regional Case Studies to a Global Harmful Algal Bloom Observing System

“…Coordination between the United States and Mexico for K. brevis has been via the United States Environmental Protection Agency Gulf of Mexico Program (Soto et al, 2012). The collaboration provided capacity building, technology transfer, and joint research efforts between the two countries.…”

Variación espaciotemporal del fitoplancton nocivo en playas recreativas de Campeche, sureste del golfo de México

“…Indeed, Karenia spp. have been reported in variable abundance in different locations on the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, from Tamaulipas to Yucatán, causing isolated HABs events (Aké-Castillo 2011, Pérez-Morales and Band-Schmidt 2011, Soto et al 2012, Merino-Virgilio et al 2013, Muciño-Márquez et al 2015, Poot-Delgado et al 2018.…”

“…De hecho, Karenia spp. se han reportado en abundancia variable en diferentes localidades de las costas del golfo de México, desde Tamaulipas hasta Yucatán, provocando eventos aislados de FAN (Aké-Castillo 2011, Pérez-Morales y Band-Schmidt 2011, Soto et al 2012, Merino-Virgilio et al 2013, Muciño-Márquez et al 2015, Poot-Delgado et al 2018.…”

Identifying bloom origins of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis in the western Gulf of Mexico using a spatially explicit individual-based model

“…The presence of cells of K. brevis in the southern Gulf is supported by historical records of blooms of K. brevis along the Mexican coast and includes a bloom of K. brevis in September of 2011 off the western coast of the Yucatan peninsula ( Fig. 1; Magaña et al, 2003;Hernández-Becerril et al, 2007;Soto et al, 2012;Soto Ramos, 2013). The southern extent of the model domain used by Thyng et al (2013) was limited to the middle region of the western Gulf of Mexico, south of the border between the United States and Mexico.…”