An algal bloom refers to an excessive growth of algae in a body of water. Some of these blooms produce harmful toxins.

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NC State researchers spend one day a month collecting water, oyster, and blue crab samples on the coast as part of their research for the newly established North Carolina Center for Coastal Algae, People and Environment (NC C-CAPE).

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The center brings together nine faculty members from five different colleges across NC State to address the growing concern of harmful algal blooms on North Carolina’s coast. The group seeks to understand, predict and reduce the risks that harmful algal blooms pose to the ecosystem and people of coastal North Carolina.

 

Solving the world’s problems takes a village. NC C-CAPE came together because the nine collaborators saw an opportunity to combine their expertises and maximize the impact of their individual research. The group consists of coastal oceanographers, toxicologists, epidemiologists, climate modelers and social scientists.

 

Data collection and analysis is only the first part of the work NC C-CAPE seeks to do. While harmful algal blooms are common in fresh waters across the U.S. and the world, major data gaps around the issue exist.

 

Data collected will inform NC C-CAPE’s other two projects, which focus on predicting the health risks of toxic algal blooms on mammals and humans, as well as considering how factors like climate change will affect future toxin levels in water and seafood.

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Coastal Algal Ecology

In the first project, researchers will monitor toxic algal blooms across the Pamlico-Albemarle Sound System. They will then link the patterns of the blooms over space and time to the contamination of seafood.

Toxicology and Epidemiology

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The second project will focus on understanding the effects of long-term exposure to toxic algal blooms, such as their potential to cause liver cancer.

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Modeling and Climate Research

 In the third project, researchers will use computational modeling to predict toxin concentrations in water and seafood under conditions like a changing climate.

 

Student Opportunities

Faculty — and the people of coastal North Carolina — won’t be the only ones benefiting from the interdisciplinary nature of NC C-CAPE. Undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to work alongside the nine principal investigators, gaining exposure to various disciplines and novel techniques and instrumentation. 

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One of the wonderful opportunities for students within NC C-CAPE is they will actually switch from one lab to the other and learn how different disciplines approach the same issue. his interdisciplinary training will become more and more of an asset for students as they go out into the workplace.”

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Editor's note: This article was adapted from “NC State on the Coast” which originally appeared at

              https://news.ncsu.edu/2024/10/08/nc-state-on-the-coast/

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The Regency Park Partnership reached out to researchers at NC State University, but they declined to comment on this article.