Research addresses inherent challenges of mitigating algal blooms amid climate change
As global warming and rising carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations spread across the globe, climate change is a growing factor in the rise of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Ingestion of, and aerosol exposure from, water containing cyanotoxin, a harmful toxin produced by cyanobacteria, is associated with several chronic conditions including gastroenteritis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and neurodegenerative diseases.
Professor and chair Jiyoung Lee, PhD, in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Public Health and co-director of The Ohio State University Infectious Diseases Institute’s Ecology Epidemiology and Population Health Program, researches how and when bacteria like cyanobacteria become out of balance and produce toxins that affect animals, humans and plants. Dr. Lee also focuses on how extreme weather events, rainfall patterns and warmer temperatures lead to the creation of microcystins, or blue-green algae, a class of toxins produced by cyanobacteria. Her lab also developed a clean and sustainable method, autonomous aquadrone with a UV-C LED system, for treating cyanobacteria and their toxins in water on-site.
“Microcystins are a primary liver toxin that causes liver toxicity and promotes cancer,” Dr. Lee says. “They are water soluble with stable cyclic peptide structure and once ingested travel to the liver and some remain in the blood stream.”
Dr. Lee says that data collected in their research showed that non-alcoholic liver disease mortality increased by 3% at population level with each 10% increase in alga blooms in the US. In addition, in data between 2005 – 2016, there was an increased liver cancer incidence rate for those served with bloom-affected drinking water sources when compared with the control population in Ohio.
Some cyanobacteria also produce neurotoxins, and more well-designed epidemiological studies are needed. “We need to address this through monitoring water toxicity levels and increasing mitigation efforts,” Dr. Lee says. “HABs seem to have the most long-term carry-over effect on Parkinson’s disease, so a focus on their role in increasing neurodegenerative disease is a must.”
One way she’ll direct this focus is by working with a fellow research, Kymberly Gowdy, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and other colleagues at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, to expand research of cyanotoxin exposure through the nasal passageway that causes systemic inflammation. It will include an examination of how lake spray is a growing issue in the spread of toxins through the air.
These findings will develop a deeper understanding of the local and global impact of cyanobacterial blooms on ecosystems, water quality, and human and animal health.
