Statewide pilot study launched to monitor benthic HABs in streams

SCCWRP and the Water Boards’ Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) Program have launched a pilot project to test-drive newly developed protocols for monitoring toxin-producing harmful algal blooms (HABs) that form along the bottom of wadeable streams, known as benthic HABs.

The study, which began field sampling in June, is intended to support ongoing efforts to build a statewide benthic HABs monitoring program.

Unlike planktonic HABs that grow in the water column, benthic HABs have not been as extensively monitored and studied in California. Because benthic HABs tend to form as mats, researchers believe humans and wildlife can be exposed to benthic HABs in more uneven and unpredictable ways compared to water-column HABs (i.e., when pieces of the mat suddenly break off and become suspended in the water column).

The pilot study spans seven stream sites representing different regions, stream types and environmental conditions in California. Researchers are using an expanded protocol that assesses both benthic HABs and associated environmental conditions, building upon the standardized best-practices benthic HAB monitoring protocols developed by the Benthic HABs Subcommittee of the California Cyanobacterial and Harmful Algal Bloom (CCHAB) Network.