The IOC international harmful algal bloom program history and science impacts

. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have become an important subdiscipline within oceanography. Heightened attention to this topic as well as significant research advances reflect the global nature of the problem and the development of strong national and international programs for HAB research and management. The planning, communication, coordination, and capacity-building activities of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) have been a key factor in this growth. Here, we highlight selected advances in science and management capacity for HABs and document the impressive growth of the field in the context of activities supported directly or indirectly by IOC. As we look to the future, the field has significant momentum and stability. Nevertheless, it will require scientific guidance and coordination going forward. With an appropriate commitment of resources from member states, the IOC HAB program can continue to be a major factor in the sustained growth of this important scientific discipline and its delivery of improved observation and management systems.

This article has been published in Oceanography, Volume 23, Number 3, a quarterly journal of The oceanography society. © 2010 by The oceanography society. all rights reserved. permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. republication, systemmatic reproduction, or collective redistirbution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The oceanography society. send all correspondence to: info@tos.org or Th e oceanography society, po box 1931, rockville, md 20849-1931, usa. but also because we are better able to perceive the true scale of the problem.
The number of toxic blooms, the resulting economic losses, the types of resources affected, and the number of toxins and toxic species reported have all increased dramatically (Figure 2; Anderson, 1989;Hallegraeff, 1993).
Some of this expansion may be attributed to natural events, as well as to and worrisome source of nutrients that promote high biomass HABs GEOHAB, 2006). Agenda (Anderson, 1995) that has guided that program through more than a decade of highly productive research.
Nearly $100M has been awarded to date.
ECOHAB has been emulated by other regional or national programs with a similar focus-including EUROHAB for the EU (Granéli et al., 1999), and CEOHAB in China (Zhou et al., 2008).
With respect to facilitation of HAB  Figure 3) does not appear to provide an advantage in their selection or success in upwelling systems, as was once proposed (Fraga et al., 1989;Smayda, 2010b).
Also, in contrast to previous thinking,

habs in eutrophic systems
Increased nutrient loading from human activities is considered to be one of the multiple reasons that HABs have been expanding in frequency, duration, and harmful properties (Anderson, 1989;Hallegraeff, 1993;GEOHAB, 2006).  .

genetics and taxonomy
For many years, workers in the HAB field established unialgal cultures that were studied as representatives of regional populations. Due to the species-specific nature of HAB research, it soon became apparent that there was considerable heterogeneity within individual bloom populations in terms of toxicity, physiology, genetics, and behavior (e.g., Scholin et al., 1994;John et al., 2003). This realization, in turn, led to conflicts with traditional taxonomic approaches to defining population structure. For example, phylogenetic studies used genetic markers such as rRNA to group isolates into clades, but many of these clades did not coincide with groups established on the basis of morphology. A prominent example is the Alexandrium tamarense species complex, in which isolates belonging to the same morphospecies cluster into multiple phylogenetic clades using rRNA sequences (Scholin et al., 1994;Lilly et al., 2007). This example has called into question the morphological criteria used for species definitions, figure 4. high-resolution (ifremer particle profiler) vertical profiles of temperature and salinity (a) and a thin layer of domoic acid-producers Pseudo-nitzschia spp. (b) in a galician ría (estuary) in northwest spain during relaxation between consecutive upwelling pulses. Vertical displacement of these layers during downwelling leads to fast accumulation of domoic acid (above regulatory levels) in bottom shellfish (scallops, razor clams) before detection in suspended raft mussels. Modified from Velo-Suárez et al. (2008) and led to reevaluation of the "species concept" in the context of HAB populations. In contrast, rRNA sequencing has not proven to be very useful for specific discrimination within the genus Dinophysis, so additional genetic markers need to be explored for that purpose (Jensen and Daugbjerg, 2009).
One of the arguments proposed by HAB workers has been that morphologybased species designations can sometimes be of little use for ecological purposes (e.g., Beam and Himes, 1982;Brand, 1991;Anderson et al., 1994). Two approaches are highlighted here.
One uses optical characters unique to the target organism. A major success story in this regard is for Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, which produces a pigment called gyroxanthindiester. This carotenoid is sufficiently unique to be a useful biomarker for
Instruments have been developed that quantify this pigment in water samples, and they have been mounted on research vessels  and inside an autonomous underwater vehicle called BreveBuster ( Figure 5; Robbins et al., 2006 et al., 1996), and a variety of PCR-based assays (e.g., Penna and Magnani, 1999;Coyne et al., 2005;Bowers et al., 2006).  benefit not only the HAB field, but oceanographic science in general.
As we look to the future, HABs will always be with us. Some large biomass blooms will be linked convincingly to pollution, possibly leading to policy decisions that reduce nutrient inputs and diminish blooms. Other HABs that are natural, with no human influence, will always occur, but their impacts will be managed and mitigated using both simple and sophisticated instruments and technology, from handheld monitors to networks of remotely deployed, robotic sensors. The latter will detect species and their toxins and send those data to shore, where they will be incorporated into numerical models and used for forecasts of bloom transport and longevity. We