Cyanobacterial Blooms: a growing threat to water, freshwater ecosystems, and human health

Dr. Dick's talk will highlight how the health of freshwater ecosystems and water resources is linked to energy and agricultural policy and food choices. In our world of dwindling water supplies, toxic cyanobacterial blooms are a serious and growing threat to precious water resources. Blooms of cyanobacteria-photosunthetic bacteroa that can produce lethal toxins -- are proliferating due to agricultural runoff and weather extemes. This talk will describe the causes and consequences of cyanobacterial blooms along with strategies to deal with them. Recent research emphasizing the important role of nitrogen in shaping bloom toxicity and our emerging understanding of the diversity of cyanobacterial toxins and their effects on human health will be discussed.

Greg Dick is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and a PhD in marine biology from the University of California San Diego. Dick uses field, lab, and bioinformatic methods to study microbial communities and their role in the environment and human health. His work focuses on cyanbacterial harmful algal blooms, which threaten freshwater ecosystems and drinking water supplies globally.