Freshwater Science: A Toxin Forecast for Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Blooms
Scientists are currently able to accurately forecast the size and approximate location of Lake Erie’s summer harmful algal blooms, but they still have questions about what controls when blooms become toxic, and how to predict which algal toxins the bloom is likely to produce.
Dr. Justin Chaffin at Ohio State’s Stone Lab is studying the environmental factors that cause Lake Erie algal blooms to become toxic or remain non-toxic, to provide more guidance to water utilities on when they should plan to treat drinking water for algal toxins.