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The potential for transport of non-indigenous marine microalgae via ships’ ballast water and by translocation of shellfish has been amply demonstrated. Molecular approaches are increasingly suggesting that global microalgal diversity has been underestimated, and as a result human-mediated translocations are likely to have been seriously underestimated. The broader environmental impacts from microalgal invasions causing altered food webs have not yet been assessed. The dogma of phytoplankton cosmopolitanism has led to false complacency, and more than 100 years after this environmental problem was first raised in the scientific literature, a general consensus has now been reached that not doing anything is no longer an option. Minimizing the risk of ballast water introductions by microalgae and their cysts represents a very significant scientific and technological challenge, which cannot yet be adequately achieved with best currently available technologies and will be high on the research and development agenda in the decade to come.

Organic forms of nutrients originate from various sources, natural and anthropogenic. Organic nutrients are, in turn, used by many HAB species that have multiple acquisition mechanisms. The strategies for nutrient and carbon acquisition by HABs are thus far more complex than were thought a decade or two ago. With the application of the host of methods now available to characterize and quantify organic matter and to measure nutrient and carbon fluxes, the role of osmotrophy in HAB dynamics will increasingly be recognized. However complex, these processes must be better understood, quantified and incorporated into models in order to advance our ability to understand population and food web dynamics and to predict the occurrences of HABs.

The molecular methods described in this chapter offer an opportunity to identify specific life stages and to study the mitotic and meiotic cell cycles of harmful algal bloom species with unprecedented accuracy. Given that different life-cycle stages often interact in complex ways to influence the success of algal species, these techniques will provide critical insights into the factors that regulate HAB population dynamics.

The potential for transport of non-indigenous marine microalgae via ships’ ballast water and by translocation of shellfish has been amply demonstrated. Molecular approaches are increasingly suggesting that global microalgal diversity has been underestimated, and as a result human-mediated translocations are likely to have been seriously underestimated. The broader environmental impacts from microalgal invasions causing altered food webs have not yet been assessed. The dogma of phytoplankton cosmopolitanism has led to false complacency, and more than 100 years after this environmental problem was first raised in the scientific literature, a general consensus has now been reached that not doing anything is no longer an option. Minimizing the risk of ballast water introductions by microalgae and their cysts represents a very significant scientific and technological challenge, which cannot yet be adequately achieved with best currently available technologies and will be high on the research and development agenda in the decade to come.

The potential for transport of non-indigenous marine microalgae via ships’ ballast water and by translocation of shellfish has been amply demonstrated. Molecular approaches are increasingly suggesting that global microalgal diversity has been underestimated, and as a result human-mediated translocations are likely to have been seriously underestimated. The broader environmental impacts from microalgal invasions causing altered food webs have not yet been assessed. The dogma of phytoplankton cosmopolitanism has led to false complacency, and more than 100 years after this environmental problem was first raised in the scientific literature, a general consensus has now been reached that not doing anything is no longer an option. Minimizing the risk of ballast water introductions by microalgae and their cysts represents a very significant scientific and technological challenge, which cannot yet be adequately achieved with best currently available technologies and will be high on the research and development agenda in the decade to come.

Organic forms of nutrients originate from various sources, natural and anthropogenic. Organic nutrients are, in turn, used by many HAB species that have multiple acquisition mechanisms. The strategies for nutrient and carbon acquisition by HABs are thus far more complex than were thought a decade or two ago. With the application of the host of methods now available to characterize and quantify organic matter and to measure nutrient and carbon fluxes, the role of osmotrophy in HAB dynamics will increasingly be recognized. However complex, these processes must be better understood, quantified and incorporated into models in order to advance our ability to understand population and food web dynamics and to predict the occurrences of HABs.

Much work remains to develop reliable estimates of the economic effects of HABs. As this work proceeds, attention should be directed at the rationale for developing these estimates. While government officials and others might solicit economic estimates of any kind in order to justify idiosyncratic public health or scientific agendas, attention should be directed at developing estimates of true economic losses, i.e., surplus changes. Based upon our experience with the field, although the number of studies of economic losses or impacts is limited, they outnumber studies of the economic costs of societal responses to HAB events. In other words, societal responses to HABs have been debated, formulated, and implemented with an inadequate understanding of the net benefits of such responses. Further efforts on the economics of HABs should focus on identifying the array of societal responses and characterizing the cost minimizing combination of management actions.

Much work remains to develop reliable estimates of the economic effects of HABs. As this work proceeds, attention should be directed at the rationale for developing these estimates. While government officials and others might solicit economic estimates of any kind in order to justify idiosyncratic public health or scientific agendas, attention should be directed at developing estimates of true economic losses, i.e., surplus changes. Based upon our experience with the field, although the number of studies of economic losses or impacts is limited, they outnumber studies of the economic costs of societal responses to HAB events. In other words, societal responses to HABs have been debated, formulated, and implemented with an inadequate understanding of the net benefits of such responses. Further efforts on the economics of HABs should focus on identifying the array of societal responses and characterizing the cost minimizing combination of management actions.

The potential for transport of non-indigenous marine microalgae via ships’ ballast water and by translocation of shellfish has been amply demonstrated. Molecular approaches are increasingly suggesting that global microalgal diversity has been underestimated, and as a result human-mediated translocations are likely to have been seriously underestimated. The broader environmental impacts from microalgal invasions causing altered food webs have not yet been assessed. The dogma of phytoplankton cosmopolitanism has led to false complacency, and more than 100 years after this environmental problem was first raised in the scientific literature, a general consensus has now been reached that not doing anything is no longer an option. Minimizing the risk of ballast water introductions by microalgae and their cysts represents a very significant scientific and technological challenge, which cannot yet be adequately achieved with best currently available technologies and will be high on the research and development agenda in the decade to come.

Much work remains to develop reliable estimates of the economic effects of HABs. As this work proceeds, attention should be directed at the rationale for developing these estimates. While government officials and others might solicit economic estimates of any kind in order to justify idiosyncratic public health or scientific agendas, attention should be directed at developing estimates of true economic losses, i.e., surplus changes. Based upon our experience with the field, although the number of studies of economic losses or impacts is limited, they outnumber studies of the economic costs of societal responses to HAB events. In other words, societal responses to HABs have been debated, formulated, and implemented with an inadequate understanding of the net benefits of such responses. Further efforts on the economics of HABs should focus on identifying the array of societal responses and characterizing the cost minimizing combination of management actions.