Great Lakes researchers at the University of Michigan have been awarded a $6.5 million, five-year federal grant to host a center for the study of links between climate change, harmful algal blooms and human health.

Increased precipitation, more powerful storms and warming Great Lakes waters all encourage the proliferation of harmful algal blooms composed of cyanobacteria.

Also known as blue-green algae, cyanobacteria can produce toxins harmful to humans, pets and wildlife. Though the pea-green summer blooms in western Lake Erie are the best-known in the region, cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, or cHABs, now occur in all five Great Lakes.

“Toxic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms are a growing threat to freshwater ecosystems, drinking water supplies and coastal communities worldwide, and the Great Lakes are ground zero for the climate-induced intensification of these blooms,” said U-M environmental microbiologist Gregory Dick, who will serve as director of the Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health.

Dick is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, director of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, professor of earth and environmental sciences and of ecology and evolutionary biology in LSA, and professor of environment and sustainability in the School for Environment and Sustainability.

The center was founded at Bowling Green State University in 2018 with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Due to the retirement of founding director George Bullerjahn at BGSU, the center’s administrative home has moved to Ann Arbor with renewed funding from the two federal agencies.

Read the full release on the Michigan News website.

Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health