"The findings of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research, published in Nature Communications, suggest that increased nitrogen availability from natural and human sources, such as sewage, is supporting blooms of Sargassum and turning a critical nursery habitat into harmful algal blooms with catastrophic impacts on coastal ecosystems, economies and human health. Globally, harmful algal blooms are related to increased nutrient pollution."

See link below for entire NSF news story on our new publication in Nature Communications!

HAB Lab Research Coordinator and part-time Geoscience Ph.D. student, Rachel Brewton, publicly proposed her dissertation research entitled, "Nitrogen Enrichment, Eutrophication,  & Bottom-Up Trophic Shifts in Ecosystems of the Indian River Lagoon" via Zoom. Her research will help to better understand shifts in primary producers in the Indian River Lagoon as they relate to eutrophication, marine ecology, and food webs. The next steps for Rachel are to pass the comprehensive exams created by Dr. Lapointe and her Ph.D. committee and to continue working on her research.

We're excited to welcome our new Research Coordinator, Kevin Tyre to the HAB Lab team! Kevin comes to us from Kennedy Space Center where he worked as a Payload Integration Scientist. At HBOI, Kevin will be the team lead for our Lee County Microbial Source Tracking Study. Kevin is interested in water quality and phytoplankton biology. Welcome aboard Kevin!

We're excited to welcome our new Research Assistant Diana Baladi to the HBOI HAB Lab team! Diana completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at Montclair State University, NJ and previously volunteered as an aquarium diver at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ. Diana will be assisting on our Lee County North Fort Myers project. We're excited to have her on-board! Welcome Diana!

"This summer may shape up to be the worst inundation of sargassum in recent time for Florida, writes columnist Frank Cerabino. Brian LaPointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, likes to talk in terms of the movie Jaws. “We’re going to need a bigger boat,” LaPointe told me Tuesday.
We were not talking about sharks. We were talking about seaweed. ..."

Read more from the Palm Beach Post at the link below.​

Dr. Lapointe & Rachel Brewton presented the findings of their 2017-2018 study on factors affecting water quality in the North Fort Myers area in a workshop to the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.  Other co-authors on the study included Lynn Wilking & Laura Herren.  The study will continue for a second year beginning in August 2019.  The year 1 report and a video of the proceedings can be found below.

A new study on the floating, pelagic brown seaweed, Sargassum, was published in Geophysical Research Letters by our University of South Florida (USF) collaborators with HAB Lab members, Brian Lapointe and Rachel Brewton as co-authors. Information regarding what drives the productivity and distribution of Sargassum is becoming more important every year, as blooms continue to worsen globally. The HBOI HAB Lab is continuing to pursue these important questions with our USF and other collaborators.

Abstract:
Field and laboratory experiments are designed to measure Sargassum biomass per area (density), surface reflectance, nutrient contents, and pigment concentrations. An alternative floating algae index-biomass density model is established to link the spectral reflectance to Sargassum biomass density, with a relative uncertainty of ~12%. Monthly mean integrated Sargassum biomass in the Caribbean Sea and central West Atlantic reached at least 4.4 million tons in July 2015. The average %C, %N, and %P per dry weight are 27.16, 1.06, and 0.10, respectively. The mean chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration is ~0.05% of the dry weight. With these parameters, the amounts of nutrients and pigments can be estimated directly from remotely sensed Sargassum biomass. During bloom seasons, Sargassum carbon can account for ~18% of the total particulate organic carbon in the upper water column. This study provides the first quantitative assessment of the overall Sargassum biomass, nutrients, and pigment abundance from remote sensing observations, thus helping to quantify their ecological roles and facilitate management decisions.

The City of Port St. Lucie is once again partnering with local scientists to work on another in-depth water quality study.

Mayor Gregory J. Oravec said "We need good science to objectively measure the health of our river, to direct our limited resources to where we can do the greatest good and to measure our progress in a continuous loop. Our ongoing partnership with a leading scientist, like Dr. Lapointe, and a preeminent marine science institution, like FAU Harbor Branch, helps us meet these needs and more". 

​Read the whole article at the link  below.

Dr. Lapointe presented a seminar at the 2018 Reef Environmental Education Festival titled: Stressed Out: Three Decades of Nitrogen Enrichment on Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys and Caribbean Region.   

“We have altered the nitrogen cycle on our planet and it started with the invention of fertilizer,” Lapointe said. “We think this is what is behind the increased abundance of sargassum.”  ​

Our team conducted our second reef survey at Pepper Park Reef.  We surveyed the benthic cover at the reef and collected water, macroalgae, and urchin samples.  We look forward to analyzing these samples to help us better understand what forces are shaping this reef community.

We are excited to welcome our new summer volunteer, Jody Smith! Jody is an undergraduate student of Environmental Studies at University of California Santa Cruz.  She's going to help us in the lab and with fieldwork over the next month. Welcome to the world of algae Jody!

Megan McRoberts of WPTV tagged along for an exciting day of fieldwork surveying coastal reefs for signs of eutrophication with the Lapointe HAB Lab. The story highlighted the importance of this new project.   We are looking forward to analyzing the data collected and sharing the results.

 Our first sampling trip for a new nearshore reef survey was conducted June 20, 2018 using the Harbor Branch Dusky. The HAB Lab team, Lapointe, Brewton, and Wilking, set out along with our collaborator Alex Tewfik of Wildlife Conservation Society Belize, HBOI photographer Brian Cousin, and WPTV news anchor Megan McRoberts to survey some coastal reefs for reported symptoms of eutrophication. We became aware of the potential problem from divers who were reporting unusual numbers of algae and sea urchins, possible signs of an ecosystem out of balance. We collected, environmental measurements, water samples, and macroalgae samples.  Additionally, SCUBA surveys were done of the benthic (algae, wormrock, coral, sponges, etc.) and fish communities.  We will try to sample these sites monthly, as visibility and weather conditions allow.  The goal will be to understand what is influencing the distribution and abundance of algae and other organisms on these important habitats.

We're excited to welcome our new HAB Lab volunteer, FAU Biology undergraduate student Rachael Stark!  Rachael is a senior with a focus in Marine Biology.  She will graduate this fall and hopes to attend graduate school next year.  We hope that by volunteering in our lab she will learn some valuable skills and get a better idea of the sorts of research that she would like to do in graduate school.  She's already been been extremely helpful in the lab by washing bottles and grinding Sargassum samples.  Welcome to the world of algae Rachael!

Dr. Lapointe discussed the increased strandings of the brown algae, Sargassum, with the Palm Beach Post. These strandings are an issue for coastal communities in many locations and one of the reasons we study Sargassum. Link to the article below.

On Monday, May 21, 2017 the Lapointe HAB Lab presented the findings of the recently released report, "Microbial Source Tracking of Bacterial Pollution in the North Fork of the St. Lucie River" at a special meeting of the Port St. Lucie City Council. Dr. Lapointe, Lynn Wilking, and Rachel Brewton all attended the meeting. Brewton presented the findings of the study and all were on-hand after the presentation to answer questions. WPTV reported on the meeting and the link to their coverage is below.

We are in the process of writing a scientific paper that will examine the biochemistry and nutrient sources supporting different seagrass species within the Indian River Lagoon, Florida.  There are seven species of seagrasses reported for the Indian River Lagoon, however of particular interest, is the oligotrophic seagrass, Thalassia testudinum. Often referred to as "turtle grass", Thalassia has the highest light requirement of all seagrasses and is considered to be an indicator of a healthy ecosystem.  On the Atlantic coast, Sebastian Inlet was considered to be the northernmost limit of Thalassia, however there is concern that is may be receding to the south.  There were reports of locations where Thalassia might still exist in this area, so we took the HBOI Sundance out to investigate.  After thoroughly surveying multiple sites, we were unable to confirm any Thalassia in this area currently.  We did find abundant populations of Caulerpa prolifera, an alga that resembles Thalassia, but thrives in nutrient rich and low light water. Could these previous reports have mistaken Caulerpa prolifera for Thalassia or has it recently receded and is no longer present at Sebastian Inlet? 

On April 29, 2018, Brian conducted a belated birthday dive at Looe Key reef.  The wind was less than 4 knots and the seas were calm, however the water was still relatively turbid and green with visibility around 35 ft.  Brian collected water samples for nutrient analysis to add to our long-term database. He also observed blooms of the macroalgae Dictyota menstrualis and Liagora ceranoides.  The shallow fore reef experienced intense wave action during Hurricane Irma and the coral spur framework had been blown apart exposing fossil remains of elkhorn coral  Acropora palmata.  This is a reminder that elkhorn coral played a major role in the construction of the spur and groove formation of Looe Key reef over geological time.  Currently, greater than 95% of the elkhorn coral at Looe Key is gone, indicating that this reef can no longer keep pace with sea level rise, and would be considered to be a "give up" reef.  The HAB Lab has just submitted a research article detailing three decades of Brian's water quality monitoring at Looe Key reef, we look forward to sharing this paper when it is in press.