Sibel BARGU ATES - Phytoplankton Ecology and HAB Lab

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasingly observed around the coastlines of the world’s ocean, with the growing numbers of reports resulting possibly from increased surveillance and/or to increases in bloom frequency, possibly from anthropogenic influences. These blooms are probably the natural outcome of growth of phytoplankton populations under extreme conditions. And most of the time such phenomena are great indicators of the local environment.
One of our lab goals is to obtain data that would distinguish between changes in abundance of HAB species resulting from natural oscillations in oceanographic conditions versus more unidirectional environmental changes that result from human influences.
Another major goal is to discover whether the increased presence of toxic phytoplankton along coastlines (if that is actually the case) is resulting in changes in toxin contamination of pelagic ecosystems, especially apex predators such as marine birds and mammals, and therefore in changing health risks for humans.

MY RESEARCH FOCUS: I study the trends in phytoplankton populations to address the causes of the apparent increase in harmful algae. My agenda includes phytoplankton-focused work and projects that explore the results of a HAB presence, i.e. food web contamination by algal toxins. My main research efforts will be:

• To understand the physical and chemical conditions that initiates and promotes major algal blooms, including the toxic ones. My research in this area include the search for the origin (offshore vs. near shore) of bloom innocula, and the description of the oceanographic (and possibly nutrient) conditions (including those related to anthropogenic and climate forcing) that support the progression of the bloom.
  
• To examine the extent to which phytoplankton toxins (possibly from increasing HAB events) are permeating aquatic food webs. Such toxin transmission could have positive feedback effects (e.g. reduce top-down control of HABS) and also profoundly affect apex predators, with resulting environmental consequences. Additionally, toxin transfer to marine organisms consumed by humans has major economic and health consequences. Interestingly, changes in shellfish contamination and the use the toxin levels in these organisms could provide complementary (and possibly historical) information about the toxic algae.

LAB MEMBERS:
Postdoctoral Researcher:
Kari Galván: My present research includes the effects of episodic events, such as hurricanes and tidal flux, on the ecology of both phytoplankton and benthic microalgae in coastal zones. Other research interests include food-web ecology and the impacts of anthropogenic effects (i.e., nutrient loading and predator loss) and harmful algal species on aquatic food webs. To date, I have successfully conducted multiple isotope additions to address anthropogenic impacts on saltmarsh food webs. My current goals are to use isotope tracers to examine the effects of harmful algal species on trophic interactions.

Graduate Students:
Jessica Czubakowski: Thesis Title: “The role of nutrient loaded freshwater on seasonal phytoplankton successions and phycotoxin production in Breton Sound, Louisiana.”

Ana Cristina Garcia: Thesis Title: “Environmental catalysts for toxin production by Pseudo-nitzschia and Microcystis isolates from northern Gulf of Mexico: Effect of N, Si, and P ratios on growth and toxin production in a continuous culture.”

Ross Del Rio: Thesis Title: “Is the shark community of Terrebonne Bay, LA is ingesting domoic acid contaminated fish?”

Undergraduate Students:
Aaron Hawkins: Senior at Louisisana State University. Duties include organizing and cleaning the lab and equipment, autoclaving, data entry, and processing chlorophyll samples. Aaron is planning on going to medical school after graduation.

Technician:
Ben Von Korff: Duties include organization, culture maintenance, performing sample analyses, and field trips. Projects involved in focus on the effects of eutrophication and pulsed water regimes on phytoplankton and harmful algae dynamics.