Background on Brown Tide Blooms, Aureococcus anophagefferens (A.a.)
Massive brown tide blooms, caused by the rapid growth of a minute pelagophycean alga (ca. 3 µm), Aureococcus anophagefferens, were first observed in 1985 along the northeast coast in non-contiguous bays in Narragansett Bay, RI, Peconic Bay and Great South Bay systems of Long Island, NY and caused the devastation of the scallop industry in L.I. These blooms were suspected in Barnegat Bay, NJ at the same time, because of the yellow-brown discoloration of the water, but were not confirmed.
In 1995, brown tide blooms were first documented in Little Egg Harbor (in southern Barnegat Bay) Tuckerton, NJ and were associated with the reduction in growth of hard clams, Mercenaria mercenaria, at a commercial aquaculture facility. Brown tide blooms were also reported in New Jersey's Barnegat Bay in 1997 and 1999. While they are not considered to be a human health threat (in terms of bathing or seafood consumption), they may cause significant negative impacts to shellfish (hard clams, mussels, scallops) and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAVs).
There are several hypotheses concerning the promotion of brown tide blooms but they don't seem to be associated with inputs of inorganic nutrients – which promote other algal blooms. However, multiple ecological factors are associated with A.a. blooms including reduced estuarine flushing rates, elevated salinities, meteorological forcing unusual winter and spring drought periods, iron, and organic nutrients.
Links
State Agencies/Organizations
New Jersey
New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
Division of Science, Research and Technology-Brown
Tide Newsletters: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/browntide/bt.htm
New Jersey Dept.
of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Marine
Water Monitoring (Annual Summary of Phytoplankton
Blooms in the New Jersey Coastal Waters):
http://www.state.nj.us/dep www.state.nj.us/dep
(Go to program units, land use management, water
monitoring management, Bureau of Marine Water
Monitoring.)
NJ Marine Sciences Consortium/NJ Sea Grant:
http://www.njmsc.org/
Maryland
Maryland Department of Natural Resources: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/hab/brown_tide.html
New York
New York Sea Grant:
http://www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/
Suffolk County Department of Health Services:
http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/
(search for brown tide)
Federal Governmental Agencies
National Oceanographic
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): http://research.nwfsc.noaa.gov/ec/tox/introduction_page.htm
NOAA Center for
Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research/Coastal Ocean
Program: http://www.cop.noaa.gov/Historical/BTRI.htm
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/coastlines/summer98/harmfulalga.html
U.S. Department
of Agriculture:
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/watershed/pdffiles/Pathogen_Information_Sheet-Pfiesteria_and_Algal_Blooms.pdf
Brown Tide Directories
Brown Tide Clearinghouse: An online directory:
http://www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/browntide/default.htm
Academic/Research Institutions and Consortia, Laboratories and Digital
Libraries
Brown Tide Research Institute (BTRI):
http://www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/BTRI/default.htm
Academic/Research Institutions and Consortia, Laboratories and Digital Libraries
Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute (WHOI):
http://www.whoi.ed/science/
(search: Brown Tides)
Bigelow Lab:
http://www.bigelow.org/hab/impact.html
Ecology of Harmful Algal Blooms:
http://www.cop.noaa.gov/Fact_Sheets/ECOHAB.htm
Harmful Algae Data Links:
http://cbr-rbc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/issha/New_ISSHA/Links_Gen.htm
Harmful Algae Digital Library:
http://nsgd.gso.uri.edu/bloom.html
The National Science and Technology Council:
http://www.nsgo.seagrant.org/research/hab/National_HAB_Assessment.pdf
Texas Brown Tides:
http://www.texasep.org/html/wql/wql_5cst_redtide.html
Harmful Algae Journals:
http://library.usask.ca/ejournals/full.phtml?issn=1568-988
Site maintained by the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA), Cook College, Rutgers University. Web site created by Scott Haag Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. Site last updated May23, 2003.