BGSU nabs federal grant to track algal bloom toxins

SANDUSKY — Bowling Green State University and six partners received a grant of about $400,000 to develop a portable system for detecting algal bloom toxins in Lake Erie water. The lead scientist for the grant, BGSU biology professor Timothy Davis, told the Register the money will let BGSU and its partners teach beach managers, charter boat captains, water filter plant workers and others how to check Lake Erie water for the toxins produced by harmful algal blooms.The "citizen science" readings of toxins taken by using a portable $4,000 device will help scientists trying to develop a model for forecasting algal bloom toxins in Lake Erie, Davis said. While scientists have been making annual forecasts for the size of the bloom, they haven't yet been releasing toxicity forecasts.The grant is for 2019 through 2022 and is anticipated to eventually total $876,843. The initial grant is for $408,371.The grant from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is part of $10.2 million from the agency's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science being awarded to 12 research projects on harmful algal blooms being carried out across the U.S.Aside from the Great Lakes grant to BGSU, NOAA announced Tuesday it is awarding grants for projects in Alaska, California, Chesapeake Bay, Florida, New England and the Pacific Northwest.BGSU's partners in the grant are LimnoTech, Inc., MBio Diagnostics, Inc., NOAA NCCOS, Ohio State University, University of Michigan Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research and the University of Toledo.Davis has studied algal blooms in Sandusky Bay and has worked with George Bullerjahn, another BGSU biology professor and an expert on Sandusky Bay's bloom. Davis has studied harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes and also in Florida and China. The new research project will use a device the size of a tissue box, an Environmental HAB Toxin System, made by MBio Diagnostics, Inc., a Colorado-based company.In about 30 minutes, a person using the device can test Lake Erie water for toxins, Davis said. A water filter plant worker would be able to do multiple readings in a plant in about an hour and a half, he said.OSU has been working with charter boat captains, and some of these devices will be put into those boats, Davis said. BGSU will be working with other local partners, too, including Ottawa County's water filter plant.A mobile phone app will be developed allowing people using the device to record their sample results and the longitude and latitude where the sample was taken, allowing scientists to put together a map of algal bloom toxins in Lake Erie in real-time, Davis said. That information will help scientists trying to put together a model for forecasting toxins produced by harmful algal blooms, he said.Bowling Green State University biology professor Timothy Davis.