{"id":40794,"date":"2018-08-06T09:06:23","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T13:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/?p=40794"},"modified":"2019-07-30T12:50:53","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T16:50:53","slug":"preserving-maines-coast-umaine-researchers-tackle-green-slime-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/2018\/08\/06\/preserving-maines-coast-umaine-researchers-tackle-green-slime-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving Maine\u2019s Coast: UMaine Researchers Tackle Green Slime Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few years, residents of southern Maine\u2019s coastal communities have observed green slime growing on their shores during the spring and summer months. The question is: is this slime, known as an algal bloom, the result of population growth or a natural phenomenon? In order to answer this question, one crew at UMaine\u2019s Darling Marine Center have turned their focus to these seasonally consistent blooms with the support of a University of Maine System Research Reinvestment Fund<\/a> (RRF).<\/p>\n

A concerned citizenry tackles green slime<\/h3>\n

The Friends of Casco Bay<\/a>, a group of dedicated coastal Maine citizens seeking to protect the health of Casco Bay, have become increasingly concerned with these algal blooms. Their recent efforts involve taking a close look at the permits of wastewater treatment facilities, specifically the East End Treatment Plant in Portland, the largest of its kind in Maine. As southern Maine\u2019s urban areas increase in population, the amount of waste flowing through treatment plants and into the ocean also increases. Consequently, these facilities are the first line of defense for Maine\u2019s waters, as they treat the wastewater coming in and work to mitigate the effect of excess nutrients, such as nitrogen, before the water is released back into the ocean. In order to assess the existing permits of the East End Treatment Plant, The Friends of Casco Bay recognized the need for viable nitrogen measurement data to confirm their call for action.<\/p>\n

With efforts like The Friends of Casco Bay pointing out the potential for problems, communities like Portland have to begin asking hard questions regarding infrastructure investment decisions and how they deal with waste.<\/p>\n

To inform these big decisions for Casco Bay and the Portland area, Damian Brady<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences at UMaine and National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR<\/a>\u2019s Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network (SEANET<\/a>) Theme 1 Co-Lead, gathered a team to address this need and provide a better understanding of the nutrients in Maine\u2019s coastal waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe developed an RRF [proposal] to take a technology that has been used in San Francisco Bay, which is this continuous high frequency monitoring of nitrogen, and then apply it here in Casco,\u201d said Brady. \u201cThe thing that’s really cool about this system […] is that you can measure [nitrogen] continuously, […] whereas previously we stick a bottle in the water, we seal it up, we go back to our lab, and then we analyze to see what the nitrogen was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The predicted results from the nutrient measuring project aim to inform growing areas such as Portland on long-term, city-wide, management decisions on infrastructure, transportation, and waste management as the ocean warms and the potential for nutrient pollution increases.<\/p>\n

\"Algal
Algal bloom in South Portland’s Mill Cove, 2016. Photo provided by the Friends of Casco Bay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building innovative technology to measure the scope of the issue<\/h3>\n

The Research Reinvestment Fund is in place to \u201cstrengthen research, development and commercialization activities that are tied to Maine businesses and to industries that are critical to the future of Maine,\u201d and the RRF grant Brady received provides funding to build the technology needed to conduct their tests. The resulting machine, which can attach to a boat, measures the levels of nutrients, such as nitrogen, as the boat moves through the water. This allows for continuous measurement over large areas, like the Casco Bay, instead of periodic measurements that can only provide small snapshots of time and place.<\/p>\n

Cold waters and large tides along Maine\u2019s coast have long protected Maine from some of the larger dangers associated with too much nitrogen. However, as the Gulf of Maine warms and the population of the state\u2019s urban areas become denser, nitrogen waste can become more abundant and possibly impact local water quality.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Kate Coupland, a UMaine Ph.D. candidate working in Brady\u2019s lab, and on this RRF project, nutrients\u00a0enter the water and can cause\u00a0big phytoplankton\u00a0blooms, which is fine because plankton produce oxygen\u2014but\u00a0when that dies and sinks to\u00a0the bottom and bacteria eat it, it decreases the oxygen levels because the bacteria\u00a0need the oxygen to breathe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you end up with areas at the bottom that have no oxygen\u2014and how\u00a0much of our marine resources are\u00a0bottom dwelling animals? [Almost] all of\u00a0them,\u201d explained Coupland.<\/p>\n

While the technology developed might mirror some of the aspects of previous research conducted in the San Francisco Bay, the research conducted by Brady and his team is the first of its kind in New England, and if successful will set a precedent for future water monitoring in East Coast waters.<\/p>\n

The RRF grant opens doors to additional funding and research<\/h3>\n\n\t\t