The Curious Case of Karenia brevis

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the weekly blog. I've been gone for a few weeks--busy taking PhD examinations--but now I am back to posting weekly. I was supposed to go out into the field on Monday to collect samples for my research, but Florida has been facing a huge outbreak of red tide, also known as Karenia brevis, so I thought I would dedicate time to talking about this interesting marine organism.

I think many have heard of red tide, but don't know what causes it, and even more individuals are surprised when they learn that red tide is caused by a marine organism. K. brevis is a single-celled organism known as a dinoflagellate, which is a marine photosynthesizing organism, that moves through the motion of two flagella. Not all dinoflagellates are harmful organisms, and they are a huge energy source in marine food webs. K. brevis, however, is a particularly nasty dinoflagellate that populates high salinity and warm water areas, like the subtropics and tropics. Red tide is caused by the mass proliferation of this dinoflagellate, which can turn the surface of the water red (or brown), and is dangerous because K. brevis releases a neurotoxin, which is harmful to marine life and humans. Oftentimes, red tide outbreaks will be apparent through an abundance of dead fish and marine mammals, and the smell of the dead organisms can cause severe respiratory distress in some individuals.

Since my work involves displacing water from the ocean and then siphoning it off the top of the sediment cores, there is a high chance that myself or my research team would get seawater on us, which is not ideal when there is K. brevis in the water. Therefore, I cancelled the trip and I will be looking to reschedule. In the meantime, I am excited to announce that I have brought on two researchers onto my team who are both undergraduate students at the university. They are at two separate points in their science careers, and I hope that in the next few weeks I will be able to do a blog post on them and introduce you all to the rest of my team. Stay tuned!

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