Sensors for Monitoring Harmful Algae, Cyanobacteria and Their Toxins

24 industry to HAB-related meetings (national and regional), and offering to accompany stakeholders in the field with various technologies (e.g. hand held qPCR machine). New technology development or application customization pipelines should engage stakeholder input at an early stage to ensure products of technology investments are fit for purpose. Given both the biological and regional diversity of HA species and toxin profiles it should be acknowledged that detection assays will likely require regional tuning rather than a one size fits all strategy. 5. Further refine microcystin detection levels in order to improve early warning. Additional research should include extracellular toxins and how those may contribute to an event. 6. Seek sustainable funding for continuous measurements of environmental parameters and species/toxin detection via mobile and moored platforms for continued expansion of long- term data sets. A pathway for this support should include researchers, manufacturers and stakeholders. As a community, begin creating a space for these relationships to form and build in order to demonstrate the need to funding agencies. The NOAA-OAR funded Lake Erie HAB Bulletin is a successful model between partnerships, long-term funding sources and platform operations. 7. Support investment in both autonomous in situ HA detection technology along with end- user accessible, highly portable formats to spatially expand HA detection at autonomous sentinel monitoring sites. 8. Strategically identify and tap into alternate sources of support/partnerships to advance sensor technologies including obvious HAB-impacted industries (e.g. aquaculture), larger market capitalization industries (e.g. flour/milling) which rely on clean/toxin-free water, and industries (e.g. cosmetics, medical) which may have more lucrative applications for technologies currently being developed for HABs. 9. Continue to support the mandates of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) and the Ecological Forecasting Roadmap (EFR). 10. Focus on HAB toxin detection assay kits for near-future ACT Performance Verification. 11. For future ACT verification tests, consider requesting funded groups to participate in order to lessen the burden on small vendors that are unable to loan out multiple instruments for an extended period of time. R EFERENCES Anderson, D.M. 1989. Toxic algal blooms and red tides: a global perspective. In Red Tides: Biology, Environmental Science and Toxicology , eds. T. Okaichi, D.M. Anderson, T. Nemoto, pp. 11–16. New York: Elsevier. Anderson, D.M. Burkholder, J.M., Cochlan, W.P., Glibert, P.M., Gobler, C.J., et al. 2008. Harmful algal blooms and eutrophication: examining linkages from selected coastal regions of the United States. Harmful Algae 8:39–53.