Hosted by US Environmental Protection Agency
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Using predicted chlorophyll-a and cyanobacteria concentrations in surface waters to characterize harmful algal bloom impacts on US drinking water quality - Meredith Brehob (ORISE), and Michael Pennino, U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development
In this presentation, we explore innovative approaches to predicting harmful algal blooms and their impacts on drinking water quality across lakes in the conterminous United States. We paired survey data with contextual nutrient, landscape, lake, and climate data to predict nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations in lakes. Combining lake predictions with drinking water system operation and violation data allowed us to explore the impacts of harmful algal blooms on drinking water and develop a simplified risk metric for determining where drinking water is most vulnerable to the effects of HABs.
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Predicting cyanobacteria abundance and microcystin detection in 125,000 on-network US lakes - Melanie Reynolds, U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development (ORISE)
With increasing concerns about freshwater cyanobacteria blooms, there is a need to identify which waterbodies are at risk for developing blooms, especially those that produce cyanotoxins. We developed spatial statistical models based on national lake characteristics, nutrient input and other watershed data to determine which factors best explain the presence of harmful cyanobacterial blooms. These models can help identify which lakes are more vulnerable to blooms and in need of additional monitoring or communicating with communities near high-risk lakes.