The third installment of the William & Mary Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) "Deeper Dive" video series explores how students and scientists are using state-of-the-art technology to better understand the impact of harmful algal blooms on marine ecosystems.

The Chesapeake Bay provides a unique opportunity for study. While other bodies of water may ontain only one or two species of alges, the Chesapeake "is more of an alphabet soup" of many species from both Northern and Southern waters.

For example, Juliette Smith’s Dinophysis research at VIMS will benefit from the planned mid-October deployment of a privately funded Imaging FlowCytobot—an automated, submersible instrument that can capture images of individual algal cells in real-time, and be programmed to identify these cells to species level.

"The Cytobot will help us develop early warning systems that coastal managers and growers can use to ensure shellfish safety and protect human health,” says Smith. It will also advance the team’s broader goal of identifying the environmental factors that control Dinophysis blooms and toxicity within and across regions.

Algal blooms continue to impact our waterways long after the summer is past. Once the algae dies there is a possibility of a major fish kill as decomposition depletes oxygen in the water, which lasts into October.

The team’s research focuses on Dinophysis, a group of algae known to produce toxins that cause diarrhetic shellfish poisoning. Dinophysis species have threatened shellfish consumers in Asia and Europe for decades, and have more recently emerged as a threat to human health in Texas, Washington, and New England. Chesapeake Bay and the mid-Atlantic are new areas of concern, as they harbor toxin-producing species of Dinophysis, with evidence that impacts to human health may soon emerge.

VIMS is part of a greater statewide effort to build leadership, prevention, interception, innovation and clean up of the marine environment.

Over the next few months Waterway Guide News will highlight a new facet of this ongoing series twice a month.

The series includes: Deploying Bots in the Bay, Responding to Plastics Pollution, Saving the Shoreline, Forecasting Tidal Flooding, Modeling Storm Surge and Surveying the Sea Floor.

This “Deeper Dive” video series, available on the VIMS website and YouTube, demonstrates that not everyone who earns a Ph.D. in marine science goes on to work in a lab or a classroom, but may instead choose to bridge the gap between the lab and raising our collective coastal IQ.

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New grant awards and technologies are helping researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science redouble their efforts to better understand and manage potentially harmful algal blooms in Chesapeake Bay and coastal waters around the U.S.

Giving to VIMS

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has a three-part mission to conduct interdisciplinary research in coastal ocean and estuarine science, educate students and citizens, and provide advisory service to policy makers, industry, and the public.

Essential to this mission is support provided by generous donors who make possible cutting-edge research, facilities, technology, and equipment; resources for faculty; and competitive scholarships that attract the best students. As state funding continues to decline, VIMS must count increasingly on a stable source of this private support to be a leading marine science center.

Ways to Support VIMS

Private gifts may take many forms. Visit Ways to Give to see how you can support VIMS. Also, when considering a gift please remember that more than 1,000 corporations and businesses match their employees’ charitable donations to college and universities. Many companies also match gifts for spouses and retirees.