IOC/OTGA/HAB/RTC Portugal, and Centro de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIMA), Universidade do Algarve (Portugal): Harmful Algal Blooms: environmental drivers, impacts, and prediction

Resumen

Course description

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have multiple negative impacts on living marine resources, public health, socio-economic activities, and the dynamics of marine ecosystems. Mitigating the effects of HABs requires the use of knowledge-based, integrated management strategies, including HAB prediction. This course aims to provide knowledge of the physiology and ecology of HAB-forming organisms in marine ecosystems, including functional traits, environmental drivers, distribution patterns and temporal trends, relevant to support management practices. The effects of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes (e.g., eutrophication, climate variability) will be specifically addressed. The consequences of HAB events for human and ecosystem health and services, including the fate of phycotoxins in aquatic systems, and the methodological strategies used to quantify HAB-forming species and phycotoxins will be further explored. This information will be applied to critically evaluate the methods available to model, predict, and manage HAB events in aquatic ecosystems. 

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, students should be able to:

• Recognize the most relevant organisms that form toxigenic and non-toxigenic HABs in marine ecosystems, and their functional traits.

• Explain the consequences of HABs for human health, marine resources, and ecosystem dynamics and services.

• Recognize the main types of phycotoxins, and quantification methods.

• Explain the processes that regulate the fate of phycotoxins in marine biota.

• Evaluate and select methodological approaches used to quantify and identify HAB-forming species.

• Understand the environmental drivers and triggers of HABs in marine ecosystems.

• Discuss the impact of environmental variability on the distribution and progression of HABs.

• Understand and evaluate HAB prediction models, including operational early warning systems, and propose appropriate environmental management measures.

Course content

This course comprises 15 theoretical sessions (T), including case study discussions and periods for student participation, and 2 practical sessions (P) covering the identification of key HAB taxa and exploration of dedicated global databases, dedicated discussion forums, and mentoring/tutorial sessions. Major topics include:

Module 1. Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs): types of blooms, organisms and functional traits (2 T).

Module 2. Impacts of HABs: human health, marine resources and ecosystem dynamics and services (2 T).

Module 3. Fate of phycotoxins in marine biota: types of toxins and analytical methods, and toxin accumulation, biotransformation and elimination in aquatic biota (3 T).

Module 4. Approaches to study and identify HAB-forming species: sampling strategies, and biochemical, optical and molecular methods (2 T and 1 P).

Module 5. Environmental drivers of HABs: controls on growth and mortality (2 T).

Module 6. Dynamics of HABs: spatial patterns, temporal trends and interactions with eutrophication, and climate change. (2 T and 1 P).

Module 7. Modelling and prediction of HABs: types of models, operational early warning systems and links to HAB management (2 T).

Learning assessment

Learning will be measured using formative self-assessment questions, available for each course module, and a compulsory course assignement developed in groups and presented and discussed orally (synchronous seminar session).

Certificate 

Participants who complete all segments of the course modules (e.g., instructional materials, external sources, formative self-assessment questions), and score more than 60% on the final course assignment and complete the feedback survey, will receive a certificate of completion.