Guide to the Identification of Harmful Microalgae in the Gulf of Mexico

This Guide to the Identification of Harmful Microalgae in the Gulf of Mexico was developed for analysts and managers world-wide involved in marine HAB monitoring, assessment and forecasting. Most of these programs are tied to public health or marine resource health and assessment, e.g., shellfish harvesting, shellfish and fish aquaculture and finfish or marine mammal population assessments. The Guide is the result of two initial grants from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program and with cooperation from the University of South Florida, Florida Institute of Oceanography, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa Ciudad de México and private funds.

It is available via a free download from the FWC Digital Library.

There are two volumes divided into 10 chapters and two appendices. Volume I: Taxonomy has four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the training programs that were developed for Gulf of Mexico Mexican public health officials (Allen). Following that introductory chapter are three chapters on microscopic identification of diatoms (Meave and Zamudio), dinoflagellates (Steidinger) and rhapidophytes (Tomas). Volume II: Methods & Approaches contains chapters five (V) through 10 (X).  Chapter five is water column sampling strategies (Christman and Steidinger) while chapter six) is how to treat and quantify those water samples (Steidinger and Christman). Chapter seven  is on benthic dinoflagellate sampling (Tester and Kibler) and chapter eight  is on a rapid method for sampling of dinoflagellate resting cysts (Williams). The last two chapters are on remote sensing as a HAB tool (Cannizzaro, Soto, and Hu) and on approaches to public outreach (Brown).