It’s usually safe to say that when a body of water is coated with a layer of algae that particular ocean, lake, or stream is not only gross, but it’s also unhealthy.

When excess amounts of chemicals like nitrogen and phosphorus get into the water, they fertilize algae. As the algae grow and multiply, algal blooms develop and blanket the water. Sometimes the algal blooms produce toxins that harm other organisms.

Scientists find that the current methods used to detect toxins from algal blooms are expensive, sometimes require animal testing, and don’t indicate how much of the toxin is present. But two researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in California just received a grant to come up with an easier way to detect the toxins from harmful algal blooms (HABs).

Every coast in the country suffers from HABs. In places where there is too much algae in the water, the green growth produces neurotoxins. Zooplankton and shellfish eat the algae and the toxins accumulate in their bodies. When other animals eat the plankton and shellfish, which are at the bottom of the food chain, toxins accumulate in the animals’ bodies. If the amount of toxin reaches a certain level in a bird, marine mammal, or human, the poison can harm or even kill it.

The researchers, Todd Lane, a molecular biologist, and Victoria VanderNoot, a chemist, are going to work on technology that can analyze multiple toxins in organisms at the bottom of the food chain. They will use laser-induced florescence, which scientists use to detect and separate what they are looking for, and other separation techniques. In the end, the researchers hope to create reliable, lightweight devices that oceanographers can take into the water to look for the toxins before they become a larger problem.

The technology that the scientists are envisioning could be used in freshwater ecosystems as well. The devices will help monitor the health of the oceans, lakes and streams, which could mean fewer water bodies coated with a layer of toxin-releasing algae. If all goes well, sometime in the future our waters might not be as gross or as unhealthy.

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Always interested in multiple aspects of the environment, Susan Cosier decided to try writing about them. She is now pursuing a career investigating science and environmental topics from yet another perspective.