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Ocean Lecture Series
What's in a Name: "Red Tides" or HABs - Should We Worry?
Paul Hargraves
About the Lecture
Dr. Paul Hargraves will present information on what are commonly called "Red Tides", but are properly termed Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), with a focus on HABs that are found in the plankton of the Indian River Lagoon system. When abundant, HABs can discolor the water in a variety of shades; some are toxic to humans and marine life, but most of their damage does not come from toxin production, but from de-oxygenation of the water when they die and decay. Such events produce "dead zones", such as one that occurs at the mouth of the Mississippi River each summer. Worldwide, there are hundreds of temporary and permanent "dead zones".
There are at least 25 potentially harmful species in the IRL; to date, there has been only one verified human illness event, but several instances of harm to marine life. Nevertheless, we have been lucky so far. Changes to the IRL system, brought about by various aspects of global change, suggest that the occurrence of HABs is increasing locally and worldwide.
About the Speaker
After a multi-decadal career at the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Paul Hargraves is now an Affiliated Research Professor in Harbor Branch's Center for Marine Ecosystem Health. His research interests focus on the biodiversity, systematics, ultrastructure, and life cycles of microscopic life in aquatic environments, and his >100 publications include research on freshwater, coastal, and oceanic environments from the North Atlantic to the Antarctic, from the Peruvian Amazon to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, from the IRL to 50-million year-old fossils.
During his career, Dr. Hargraves has received research funding totaling several million dollars from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Agency, the National Sea Grant program, and several private organizations. He has been a visiting professor at the National University of Costa Rica, and at the University of Salzburg, Austria, served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, and held adjunct positions at several other universities. His former students, including 12 Ph.D. and 20 M.S. recipients, have gone on to successful careers in academia, industry, and government, and he has served on the thesis committees of over 50 additional graduate students. He attributes his early and lifelong interest in the marine environment to many summers spent digging in the mud on Cape Cod.
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