Cyanotoxins and Harmful Algal blooms

A web-based application tool utilizing satellite data—CyANWeb—developed through collaborative interagency efforts was released as part of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) to help Federal, State, Tribal, and local partners identify when cyanobacterial blooms may be forming. Available through a web browser or as an application, the tool can access, download, and provide data to notify...

USGS scientists use innovative isotopic identification methods to determine mercury sources in air, water, sediments, and wildlife.

The public is concerned that uranium in natural geologic formations, mine tailings, dusts, water, and other geologic materials can pose a health hazard to humans and wildlife. Our specialized teams of hydrologists, chemists, and geologists working together at a field site in the Grand Canyon region of the United States have shown: Elevated uranium concentrations (above the drinking water standard)...

Science from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other entities has shown that a mixture of natural and synthetic estrogens and other similar chemicals are discharged from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to streams and rivers.

Livestock manure spills have been shown to result from events such as equipment failures, over-application of manure to agricultural fields, runoff from open feedlots, storage overflow, accidents with manure transporting equipment, and severe weather. Our specialized teams of hydrologists, chemists, biologists and geologists, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health...

A growing number of human gastrointestinal, respiratory, dermatologic, and neurologic effects, as well as dog and livestock illnesses and deaths, in the United States have been linked to exposures to algal blooms in recreational lakes and stock ponds. Some of the blooms contain cyanobacteria, which have the potential to produce cyanotoxins in freshwater systems. However, the connection between...

The team develops advanced methods to study factors driving algal toxin production, how and where wildlife or humans are exposed to toxins, and ecotoxicology. That information is used to develop decision tools to understand if ​toxin exposure leads to adverse health effects in order to protect human and wildlife health.

About the Laboratory The Environmental Health Program collaborates with scientists at the Organic Geochemistry Research Laboratory (OGRL) in Lawrence, Kansas, to develop and employ targeted and non-targeted analytical methods for identification and quantitation of known and understudied algal/cyanobacterial toxins. The laboratory contructed in 2019 is a 2,500 square foot modern laboratory facility...

About the CapabilityThe Environmental Health Program collaborates with the pathology section of the Necropsy and Pathology Diagnostic Laboratory at the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) to advance an understanding of the effects of contaminant and pathogen exposure on wildlife.

About the LaboratoryThe scientists at the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory at the Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC), Missouri, are pioneers in the development and application of passive sampling techniques for environmental monitoring. The goal of passive sampling is to provide a link between chemical occurrence and biological exposure.

About the ResearchThe Environmental Health Program collaborates with chemists and geologists at the Kansas Water Science Center's Organic Geochemistry Research Laboratory (OGRL) to develop targeted and non-targeted analytical methods for the identification and quantitation of chemicals that can impact the health of humans and other organisms and use bioassays to screen for receptor inhibition. The...

Study findings indicate that cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins were not associated with mussel mortality at the concentrations present in Lake Erie during a recent study (2013-15), but mussel growth was lower at sites with greater microcystin concentrations.