Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Fifteen Oral presentations at regional/national meetings. Examples include 1) EPA Region 1 workshop to develop open source database tools for an internet database on cyanobacteria and water quality (2009) 2) Bowdoin College and the United States Geological Survey (2009) workshop to bring neuroscientists, toxicologists and other human health professionals together with federal, state, academic, and Tribal environmental scientists to discuss regional strategies aimed at understanding possible links between environmental exposure to cyanobacterial neurotoxins and human neurodegenerative disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's. 3) US EPA Workshop: Potential Human Health Issues Related to Recurring Cyanobacterial Blooms in New England Water Bodies (2010) 4) USEPA Regional Cyanobacteria Workshop (2010) 4) NH Dept Environmental Services/UNH Workshop open to the public on Cyanotoxins in New Hampshire: Harmful Algal Blooms in Our Lakes - What You Need to Know. Participants included state employees, veterinarians and citizens 5) 2010 CT Source Water Protection Workshop 6) Annual Non-Point Source Conference in Plymouth MA (2010) 7) Gordon Research Conference (2011) on microbial toxins and 8) Cyanobacteria and Human Health: Merging Ecology, Epidemiology and Neurologic Disorders at Bowdoin College (2011) 9) NH Lakes Congress (2011), for public involved in citizen based lake monitoring. 10) Held training sessions for NH Dept Environmental Services staff in cyanotoxin analysis (2009). Education: UNH courses include Field Limnology that trained 30 undergraduate students to carry out field investigations on cyanobacteria and water quality and write water quality reports on 15 study lakes. Lakes Management course had 25 students who assisted towns and citizens in developing plans to manage sources of lake pollution and cyanobacteria problems. In the laboratory 22 undergraduate students were trained to conduct studies on water pollution and cyanotoxins, with poster presentations given at University sponsored conferences. Five senior theses were completed on cyanobacteria-related research projects. Graduate training included a Masters thesis on the abundance and distribution of cyanobacteria and microcystins in NH lakes and PhD thesis on remote sensing of cyanobacteria. In the summer 2010 and 2011 19 high school students were trained to sample and identify cyanobacteria in lakes during month long SMART (Science through Math And Research Training) programs designed to give Junior and Senior high school students training in environmental science. In the summer, 2010, we initiated the NH Citizen-based Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program (CCMP) designed to assist lakes in developing cyanobacteria monitoring protocols and to provide cyanobacteria and microcystin analysis for lakes and drinking water suppliers (on-line at http://cfb.unh.edu). In its first year the CCMP assisted 5 lakes and 8 drinking water suppliers in developing cyanobacteria monitoring programs. Developed an on-line taxonomic key to the phytoplankton to assist in identification of cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton (cfb.unh.edu/phycokey.html). PARTICIPANTS: James Haney, Jeff Schloss and John Sasner are PIs who have worked on this project. J Haney has played the primary role in overseeing the field and laboratory activities as well as in interfacing with the state agencies. Both J Haney and J Schloss teach the advanced course called Lakes Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Students in this course work with citizens and town officials near lakes that have problems with water quality and cyanobacteria. J Schloss also instructs the students in this course in GIS and watershed delineation. As UNH Extension Professor and Director of the NH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program, J Schloss gives talks and outreach workshops that include information from our study. Jacquie Colburn, Watershed Coordinator at the NH Department of Environmental Services also team teaches with us in this course and assists in the interpretation of our water quality data. J Sasner, PI, is a physiological toxicologist and assists in the analysis of data and development of new techniques in the detection of toxins. Shane Bradt, PhD student working on remote sensing of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins, also assists in the research of this project. Amanda Murby completed her Master's degree research entitled "Assessing Spatial Distributions of Cyanobacteria and Microcystins in New Hampshire Lakes, With Implications for Lake Monitoring". She has given numerous presentations on her research, which addresses several of the objectives of our project. She has been supported by University of New Hampshire Teaching Assistantship and a Summer Fellowship. Collaborators and contacts include: Elijah Stommel and Tracy Caller, ALS Clinic at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (worked in close collaboration on project dealing with cyanobacteria toxins and ALS disease, submitted grant with project PIs to National Institute for Environmental Health in 2009 and to NASA in 2010, pending, and continue to collaborate). Drs Paul A. Cox and James Metcalf, Center for Ethnomedicine, Jackson WY (collaborated on grant proposals, gave presentations at UNH and have been doing sample toxin analysis for project). Robert Craycraft, NH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program Supervisor (provides water quality analysis and sharing of sampling equipment). Richard French, Director, and Inga Sidor, Senior Veterinary Pathologist, New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (provide tissue samples from animals suspected of cyanotoxin poisoning) TARGET AUDIENCES: Primary audiences include the State Watershed and Drinking Water Divisions of the NH Department of Environmental Services, towns, and lake associations. Results from our study have been used by towns (eg Dover Sommersworth Tuftonboro NH) lake associations (eg Milton Three Ponds Protection Association, Silver Lake Protective Association) and citizens to assist in the planning for the development and remediation of their lakes. Other audiences include the US Environmental Protection Agency, with whom we are currently developing a web-based open-source data base for data on lake cyanotoxins and water quality. Through this project we also train students in our classes on the subject of cyanotoxins and lake management as well as in the techniques for measuring water quality and analyzing data. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
Research disclosed a spatial heterogeneity of cyanobacteria and toxic microcystins (MCs) produced during blooms not always related to wind influence. Phycocyanin pigment fluorescence (PCf) was evaluated as an potential tool for estimating cyanobacteria densities. Its ease and speed of operation have important implications for monitoring cyanobacteria and MCs in lakes. PCf was also useful for estimating MC (toxin) concentrations among lakes of varying trophic status and was more significant than net collected cyanobacteria counts in predicting lake concentrations of MCs. Our research results have informed state, regional and federal agencies how to better sample for significant cyanobacteria and MC occurrences. We initiated a new method of monitoring cyanobacteria toxins, using the field collections by volunteer monitors in our UNH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program. The method involves toxicological analysis of subsamples "punched" from chlorophyll filters, routinely collected by lake monitors. This effort has grown into the first citizen-based MC monitoring program designed to assist lakes in developing cyanobacteria monitoring protocols and to provide MC analysis for lakes and drinking water supplies. Increased knowledge of cyanotoxins and cyanobacteria blooms has resulted in state and regional agencies working jointly with us and holding professional (water utilities, veterinarians, and agency staff) and public information sessions. The NH Dept of Environmental Services (NH DES) requested and received training on how to measure MCs in their lab and added a cyanobacteria bloom response protocol to their beach inspection program, developed two fact sheets regarding this and expanded their beach program web site to include significant coverage on blooms and MC. Working with the NH DES Source Water Protection program and town water supply utilities we initiated discussions to set state standards for MCs, suggesting sampling protocols they could employ. Specific assistance to the Town of Meredith resulted in their application for a source water protection grant to develop a MC monitoring program. In our teaching of Interdisciplinary Lakes Management we chose lakes with cyanobacteria bloom problems and our students have successfully interacted with local lake association members to increase their concern for, monitor further, and address the causes of the blooms. In Field Studies in Lake Ecology students have learned the ecology of cyanobacteria blooms and how to sample for and quantify MCs in lake water components. Students in this class also write manuscripts on the class research some of which are published and available to the public on-line as Research Series of the UNH Center for Freshwater Biology. In extension outreach research results have informed a wide range of stakeholders on how to best deal with cyanobacteria blooms. The use of our research data that show cyanobacteria MC levels increase with increasing total phosphorus concentrations in lake water was instrumental in the decision of town planners from three towns in the Lake Winnipesaukee watershed to work to set appropriately low in-lake phosphorus criteria for their communities.

Publications

• Murby, A. 2010.Development of a Citizen Based Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program. In: US EPA Report: Guaging the Health of New England Lakes and Ponds:29-31. www.epa.gov/region 1/nelp.
• Haney, J. F. 2010.Putting it together at Lake Attitash: A case study of cooperative collaboration. In: US EPA Report: Guaging the Health of New England Lakes and Ponds: 45-57. www.epa.gov/region 1/nelp.
• Bradt, S. 2010.Using remote sensing to monitor water quality in New England lakes. In: US EPA Report: Guaging the Health of New England Lakes and Ponds: 35-38. www.epa.gov/region 1/nelp.
• Haney, J. 2011.Cyanobacteria blooms in New Hampshire lakes in Annual lake reports of season 2010. in Lake Monitoring Reports: R Craycraft and J Schloss Twenty-eight individual lake reports of the Lakes Lay Monitoring Program.
• Schloss, J. ,JF Haney, A Murby 2011. Recent research Guides Cyanobacteria Modeling. 2011 New England Lakes Conference. Kingston RI, June 3-4, 2011. New England Chapter North American Lake Management Society

Progress 10/01/09 to 09/30/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Oral presentations and workshops: "Regional Cyanobacteria Workshop" held at Chelmsford, MA on January 13, 2010. Oral presentations given by J. Haney (Toxic cyanobacteria: role of nutrients in New England waters), MS student A. Murby (Cyanobacteria: monitoring protocols and detection methods) and PhD student S. Bradt (Detecting cyanobacteria with remote sensing). New England Association of Environmental Biology Annual Meeting March 2010 in RI. A Murby presented poster (Assessing spatial distributions of cyanobacteria and microcystins in NH lakes). "Waterside workshop" held at Lake Attitash MA on June 9 2010 to discuss methods and protocols for monitoring cyanobacteria in lakes. Present were J Haney (UNH) A Murby (UNH) H Snook (US EPA Region 1) V Yandell (MA Dept Publ Health) T Campbell (Pres L Attitash Assoc) plus 5 stakeholders and town officials from the towns of Amesbury MA and Merrimac MA. Annual meeting of the New England Chapt of the NA Lake Management Society held at Worcester State College on June 12 2010. J Haney and A Murby presented workshop on zooplankton ID and use as water quality indicators. NEIWPCC Annual Non Point Source Conference in Plymouth MA May 19 2010. J Haney gave presentation (Ecology of toxic cyanobacteria). J.Haney gave presentation (Factors regulating water quality in NH lakes) to the Lakes Management Advisory Committee of NH Dept Envir Services on May 21 2010. Presentations on cyanobacteria and water quality were given by J Schloss at the following meetings: Winnipesaukee Phosphorus Criteria Stakeholder Meeting (How phosphorus impacts lakes) Oct 10 2009, Angle Pond Association (A lake is a reflection of its watershed) May 19 2010, NH Lakes Congress June 25 2010 and Squam Lake Assoc Cyanobacteria Summit (30 years of research on Squam Lake: lessons learned) July 22 2010. Ten undergraduates trained in the laboratory include Jackie Amante Nick Andersen Allie Konkowski Adrien Miller Riley Nolan Jon Bunker Jon Dufresne Annalea Fink, Kayla Huey Katie Kozacka, Francoise Morison Raina Sarvalya and Breanna Travers. The first five of these students presented the results of their research at the UNH Undergraduate Res Conference as a poster (Accumulation of Cyanotoxins in Fish Tissues). In the summer, 2010, the UNH CFB began the Citizen-based Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program or CCMP designed to assist lakes in developing cyanobacteria monitoring protocols and to provide microcystin analysis for lakes and drinking water supplies. In our first summer we processed samples (microcystins cyanobacteria counts and identification) from 5 NE states. The CCMP also trained four undergraduates (Kayla Huey, Allie Konkowski, Katie Kozacka, Breanna Travers) in field and lab methods in lake monitoring and MC analysis. A webpage (http://cfb.unh.edu/programs/CCMP/CCMP.html) was developed by A Murby describing the CCMP and providing sampling protocols to the public. Research on cyanobacteria at L Attitash MA and Shoals Marine Lab ME was incorporated into the UNH Project SMART a 1 mo summer program for high school science students. PARTICIPANTS: Collaborators and contacts include: Elijah Stommel and Tracy Caller, ALS Clinic at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (worked in close collaboration on project dealing with cyanobacteria toxins and ALS disease, submitted grant with project PIs to National Institute for Environmental Health in 2009 and to NASA in 2010, pending, and continue to collaborate). Drs Paul A. Cox and James Metcalf, Center for Ethnomedicine, Jackson WY (collaborated on grant proposals, gave presentations at UNH and have been doing sample toxin analysis for project). Robert Craycraft, NH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program Supervisor (provides water quality analysis and sharing of sampling equipment). Richard French, Director, and Inga Sidor, Senior Veterinary Pathologist, New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (provide tissue samples from animals suspected of cyanotoxin poisoning) TARGET AUDIENCES: The following were directly involved in the project through workshops, presentations, co-operative projects, classroom lectures, laboratory training and participation in the Citizen-based Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program: University of New Hampshire (UNH) students in classes (184), high school students in Project SMART (23), UNH undergraduate students trained in cyanobacteria toxin research in Haney laboratory (14), faculty collaborators and patients at the ALS Clinic at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, UNH Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Tufts School Veterinary Medicine, MA Nature Conservancy Cape Cod, Loon Preservation Committee, Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, Town planners, decision-makers and Conservation Commissions from the NH towns of Guilford, Laconia, Dover, Milton, Holderness, Meredith, Barrington, and the MA towns of Amesbury, Merrimac and Nantucket), Meredith, Lakes Region Planning Commission, North Country Resource Conservation and Development Agency, the Belknap County Conservation District and the State and Federal Agencies (eg NH Dept Environmental Services, NH Office of Energy and Planning, MA Dept Public Health, Maine Dept Environmental Protection, US EPA Laboratory Chelmsford MA, US EPA Atlantic Ecology Division RI), lake association members, lake shore residents, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, Maine Rural Water Association, public water suppliers (CT MA ME NH RI). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
Increased knowledge of cyanotoxins and cyanobacteria blooms has resulted in state and regional agencies working jointly with us and holding professional (water utilities, veterinarians, and agency staff) and public information sessions. The NH Dept of Environmental Services (NH DES) requested training on how to measure MCs in their lab and have also requested we follow up on examining MC concentrations in a number of lakes that have had substantial blooms. The NH DES has added a cyanobacteria bloom response protocol to their beach inspection program, developed two fact sheets regarding this and expanded their beach program web site to include a large section on cyanobacteria blooms. We have also worked with the NH DES Source Water Protection program and town water supply utilities to discuss setting state standards for MCs and suggesting sampling protocols they could employ. We recently (Sept 2010) assisted the Water Department of the town of Meredith, NH, write a NH DES Source Water Protection Grant proposal to develop a cyanobacteria monitoring and response system. During the summer, 2010, the UNH CFB began the Citizen-based Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program or CCMP (http://cfb.unh.edu/programs/CCMP/CCMP.html), designed to assist lakes in developing cyanobacteria monitoring protocols and to provide microcystin analysis for lakes and drinking water supplies. In our first summer we processed more than 350 samples for MC (ELISA), cyanobacteria counts (based on phycocyanin fluorescence) and identification of the dominant cyanobacteria taxa. Through our (Haney, Schloss) teaching of the course Multidisciplanary Lakes Management (along with other academic and extension faculty, NH DES and NH Fish and game staff) we have often chosen lakes with cyanobacteria bloom problems and our students have successfully interacted with local lake association members to increase their concern for, monitor further, and address the causes of the blooms. In Field Studies in Lake Ecology (Haney instructor) students have learned the ecology of cyanobacteria blooms and how to sample for and quantify MCs in lake water components. Students in this class also write manuscripts on the class research some of which are published and available to the public on-line in the Research Series of the UNH CFB (http://cfb.unh.edu/publications.htm). In extension work (Schloss) we have utilized research results to inform a wide range of stakeholders that include landowners with ponds, lakefront residents and water treatment facilities on how to best deal with cyanobacteria blooms. For example, recently, the use of our research data that show cyanobacteria MC levels increase with increasing total phosphorus concentrations in the lake water was instrumental in the decision of town planners from three towns in the Lake Winnipesaukee watershed to work to set appropriately low in-lake phosphorus criteria for their communities (in a collaborative project with NH DES, the Lakes Region Planning Commission, North Country Resource Conservation and Development Agency, the Belknap County Conservation District and the towns of Guilford, Laconia and Meredith).

Publications

• Haney, J. 2010.Cyanobacteria blooms in New Hampshire lakes in Annual lake reports of season 2009. in Lake Monitoring Reports: R Craycraft and J Schloss Forty-two individual lake reports of the Lakes Lay Monitoring Program.
• Haney, J 2010. UNH studying Ossipee Lake's mussels. L Ossipee Rep 9 (1): 2-9.
• Haney et al. 2010. An Image‐based Key to the Zooplankton of the Northeast, USA. Version 4.0.(On line at http://cfb.unh.edu/)

Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Presentations and Workshops: Oral presentation by J. Haney entitled "A Cluster of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gerhig's Disease) in Close Proximity to Two Lakes in Enfield, NH, USA, with Known Blooms of Potentially Toxic Cyanobacteria". Drinking Water Source Protection Workshop. May 1, 2009. Sponsor: American Ground Water Trust, Concord, NH. This workshop was attended mainly by persons working in areas related to drinking water. Oral presentation J. Haney entitled "Public Health Implications and Potential Dangers of Cyanobacteria to Non-Human Lake Users (Pets, Wildlife, etc.)". Workshop open to the public on "Cyanotoxins in New Hampshire: Harmful Algal Blooms in Our Lakes - What You Need to Know" held at NH Dept Environmental Services in Concord, NH, May 15, 2009. Sponsored by UNH Center for Freshwater Biology and NH Department of Environmental Services. The purpose of this workshop was to inform the public and persons involved in veterinary medicine about the health issues related to cyanobacteria in lakes. Oral presentation J. Haney entitled "Cyanobacterial Toxins: an emerging problem in lakes". Squam Lakes Science Center, Holderness, NH. June 9, 2009. Sponsored by the University of New Hampshire Speakers Bureau. Oral presentation J. Haney entitled "Monitoring for Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins in Lakes". New Hampshire Lakes Lay Monitoring Program Conference held on July 10, 2009. Attendees were primarily citizen lake monitors from New Hampshire. Training sessions held by A. Murby and J. Haney on cyanobacteria identification and techniques for measuring cyanotoxins also held following the presentations. Oral presentations by A. Murby and J. Haney entitled "Problems of Toxic Cyanobacteria in New Hampshire Lakes". Mascoma Lake Association Annual Meeting held on July 25, 2009. Oral presentation entitled "Ecology of Cyanobacteria in lakes in the Northeast, USA". USGS sponsored Workshop Title: Potential Human Health Issues Related to Recurring Cyanobacterial Blooms in New England Water Bodies: What We Know and What We Need to Know, held on December 5, 2009. Co-Sponsors: Bowdoin College and the United States Geological Survey. The purpose of this workshop was to bring neuroscientists, toxicologists and other human health professionals together with federal, state, academic, and Tribal environmental scientists to discuss regional strategies aimed at understanding possible links between environmental exposure to cyanobacterial neurotoxins and human neurodegenerative disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Oral presentations at workshops at the US Environmental Protection Agency to develop a web-based portal for presentation and analysis of cyanobacteria toxin data, held November 18, 2009 at the US EPA Laboratory at Narragansett, RI and on December 16, 2009 at the US EPA Laboratory at Chelmsford, MA. Our lab is currently assisting in the development of a US EPA (NEIWPCC) sponsored workshop on cyanobacteria entitled "Regional Cyanobacteria Workshop" to be held at Chelmsford, MA on January 13, 2010. Oral presentations will be given by J. Haney, A. Murby and S. Bradt. PARTICIPANTS: James Haney, Jeff Schloss and John Sasner are PIs who have worked on this project. J Haney has played the primary role in overseeing the field and laboratory activities as well as in interfacing with the state agencies. Both J Haney and J Schloss teach the advanced course called Lakes Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Students in this course work with citizens and town officials near lakes that have problems with water quality and cyanobacteria. J Schloss also instructs the students in this course in GIS and watershed delineation. As UNH Extension Professor and Director of the NH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program, J Schloss gives talks and outreach workshops that include information from our study. Jacquie Colburn, Watershed Coordinator at the NH Department of Environmental Services also team teaches with us in this course and assists in the interpretation of our water quality data. J Sasner, PI, is a physiological toxicologist and assists in the analysis of data and development of new techniques in the detection of toxins. Shane Bradt, PhD student working on remote sensing of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins, also assists in the research of this project. Amanda Murby completed her Master's degree research entitled "Assessing Spatial Distributions of Cyanobacteria and Microcystins in New Hampshire Lakes, With Implications for Lake Monitoring". She has given numerous presentations on her research, which addresses several of the objectives of our project. She has been supported by University of New Hampshire Teaching Assistantship and an Agricultural Experiment Station Summer Fellowship. We also have collaborations with neurological physicians, Dr. Elijah Stommel and Dr. Tracie Caller, at the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig's disease) Clinic at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, NH. Together with assistance from the Limnology Laboratory at NH Department of Environmental Services (Director Jody Conner) we are investigating clustering of ALS patients around certain lakes and possible linkages between neurological disease and cyanobacteria toxins. Dr. Paul Allan Cox, Director of the Institute for Ethnomedicine, and research scientists Drs. Sandra Banack, Susan Murch and James Metcalf have also joined in this collaboration and is assisting with the development of analytical techniques. Drs. Cox and Metcalf were guests at our laboratory and have given lectures on cyanobacteria toxins at the University of New Hampshire in 2009. TARGET AUDIENCES: Primary audiences include the State Watershed and Drinking Water Divisions of the NH Department of Environmental Services, towns, and lake associations. Results from our study have been used by towns (eg Dover Sommersworth Tuftonboro NH) lake associations (eg Milton Three Ponds Protection Association, Silver Lake Protective Association) and citizens to assist in the planning for the development and remediation of their lakes. Other audiences include the US Environmental Protection Agency, with whom we are currently developing a web-based open-source data base for data on lake cyanotoxins and water quality. Through this project we also train students in our classes on the subject of cyanotoxins and lake management as well as in the techniques for measuring water quality and analyzing data. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Changes in knowledge include: PC fluorescence predicted cultured Anabaena flos-aquae and field-collected colonies of Microcystis aeruginosa. PC fluorescence was also useful for estimating microcystin concentrations and was better than net cyanobacteria counts were for predicting lake concentrations of microcystins. Synoptic, horizontal sampling revealed significant variability in the spatial distributions of cyanobacteria and the toxin microcystin in five New Hampshire lakes of varying trophic status. Microcystin concentrations within Daphnia, lake sediments and whole lake water varied significantly between sampling sites. Additionally, net cyanobacteria also differed significantly between sampling sites. Cyanobacteria concentrations measured by phycocyanin fluorometry were not consistently higher in regions that were down-wind and/or down-current. However, the more eutrophic of the lakes had higher cyanobacteria along the shoreline (shoreline dominance) than at the deep-site of the lake. More oligotrophic lakes had the highest shoreline dominance of cyanobacteria. Microcystin concentrations were also positively correlated with trophic parameters, such as total phosphorus and total nitrogen and negatively correlated with Secchi disk transparency.

Publications

• Caller, T., J. Doolin, J. Haney, A. Murby, K. West, H. Farrar, A. Ball, B. Harris and E. Stommel. 2009. A cluster of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in New Hampshire: A possible role for toxic cyanobacteria blooms. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Suppl 2: 101-108.
• Murby, A. L. 2009. Assessing spatial distributions of cyanobacteria and microcystins in N.H. Lakes with implications for lake monitoring. Masters Thesis, Univ. New Hampshire.

Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Presentations: Results from this study were presented in a talk entitled Exploring Links between Cyanotoxins and Neurological Disease given on July 25 2008 at the NH State Lakes Management Advisory Committee and in an invited talk entitled Cyanobacteria: Potential Threats to Public Health given at the Health in Balance Conference held at the Univ of NH on April 11 2008. Paper on cyanobacteria toxicity and clusters of ALS disease in NH presented at 5th International BMAA Conference in Jackson WY on Oct 13-15 2008. Training and Workshops: Training on microcystin analysis given to staff of the Limnology Lab at the NH State Dept Environmental Services in September 2008. Held workshop at UNH Feb 9 2009 with staff from EPA Laboratories at Narragansett Laboratory and EPA Region 1 to develop open source database tools for an internet database on cyanobacteria and water quality. We have held bimonthly meetings with NH DES to develop public awareness and a state monitoring program for toxic cyanobacteria. Fall 2008 we hosted a public demonstration of the automated water quality monitoring submarine Ecomapper at Willand Pond. This event was attended by citizens and town officials from Dover and Somersworth NH and resulted in articles in local newspapers describing the problems of cyanobacteria and toxins. Education: Spring 2008 we utilized information from our study of Willand Pond and Mirror Lake in our UNH Lakes Management course (Zool 732). Eight students assisted towns and citizens in developing plans to manage sources of lake pollution and the cyanobacteria problems. Students in fall 2008 Field Limnology course assisted in sample collection and analysis of data for lakes five lakes used in this study. Students completed in 2008 include graduate student Elisha Allen and undergraduates Brian Golino and Monika Schmuck. Study results: During the summer and fall 2008 spatial distributions of cyanobacteria populations and the toxin microcystin were measured in 5 NH lakes (Barbadoes P, Willand P, Silver L of Hollis, Mirror L of Tuftonboro, and Sawyer P). Also included were two hyper-eutrophic lakes in CT (Silver and Beseck L) with assistance from CT Dept Envir Protection. Synoptic horizontal sampling included measurements with YSI multiparameter sonde of depth temp pH turbidity conductivity O2 ORP chlor and phycocyanin (cyanobacteria pigment) as well light and samples of TP TN microcystins plankton and benthos. We are testing the newly developed phycocyanin fluorescence as a tool for monitoring cyanobacteria and predicting cyanotoxin conc in lakes. A new prototype benthic sampling device (ARI Inc) was used to collect cyanotoxins in the top sediments. Net plankton samples were identified and enumerated. Cyanobacteria were found in all lakes regardless of trophic status. The toxigenic cyanobacteria Microcystis and Anabaena were the dominant cyanobacteria. In the eutrophic lake, Willand Pond, horizontal distribution of these cyanobacteria differed significantly with lowest concentrations generally at the deepest sites. Microcystin concentration as levels tended to be at least 10 times more concentrated in the sediments. PARTICIPANTS: James Haney, Jeff Schloss and John Sasner are PIs who have worked on this project. J Haney has played the primary role in overseeing the field and laboratory activities as well as in interfacing with the state agencies. Both J Haney and J Schloss teach the advanced course called Lakes Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Students in this course work with citizens and town officials near lakes that have problems with water quality and cyanobacteria. J Schloss also instructs the students in this course in GIS and watershed delineation. As UNH Extension Professor and Director of the NH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program, J Schloss gives talks and outreach workshops that include information from our study. Jacquie Colburn, Watershed Coordinator at the NH Department of Environmental Services also team teaches with us in this course and assists in the interpretation of our water quality data. J Sasner, PI, is a physiological toxicologist and assists in the analysis of data and development of new techniques in the detection of toxins. Recently, we have begun collaborations with neurological physicians at the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig's disease) Clinic at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, NH. Together with assistance from the Limnology Laboratory at NH Department of Environmental Services we are investigating clustering of ALS patients around certain lakes and possible linkages between neurological disease and cyanobacteria toxins. Recently, Dr. Paul Allan Cox, Director of the Institute for Ethnomedicine, has also joined in this collaboration and is assisting with the development of analytical techniques. Amanda Murby is doing her Master's degree research on cyanotoxins and is contributing data directly to this project. She has been supported by University of New Hampshire Teaching Assistantship and a Summer Fellowship. TARGET AUDIENCES: Primary audiences include the State Watershed and Drinking Water Divisions of the NH Department of Environmental Services, towns, and lake associations. Results from our study have been used by towns (eg Dover Sommersworth Tuftonboro NH) lake associations (eg Milton Three Ponds Protection Association, Silver Lake Protective Association) and citizens to assist in the planning for the development and remediation of their lakes. Other audiences include the US Environmental Protection Agency, with whom we are currently developing a web-based open-source data base for data on lake cyanotoxins and water quality. Through this project we also train students in our classes on the subject of cyanotoxins and lake management as well as in the techniques for measuring water quality and analyzing data. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Recent findings of our study on cyanobacteria toxins were presented by graduate student A Murby to the NH State Lakes Management Advisory Committee in September 2008. Interest generated by this presentation resulted in a motion by the LMAC to develop a workshop on monitoring cyanotoxins scheduled for May 15 2009. A new device for sampling the surface of lake sediments was developed for this study cooperatively with Aquatic Research Instruments, Inc. We have in this study the utility of a benthic sampler that collects the uppermost sediments which contain the highest concentrations of lake cyanobacteria toxins. The device is simple to use and is especially designed for use by citizen monitors. At the end of this study we plan to publish these results and make this device available for application in for water quality monitoring programs.

Publications

• A Cluster of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Close Proximity to Two Lakes in Enfield, NH, USA with Known Blooms of Potentially Toxic Cyanobacteria Authors: T Caller, J Doolin, J Haney, A Murby, G Boyer K West B.S.,H Farrah, A Ball, B Harris, E Stommel. Journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. (accepted for publication Jan 2009)