Tracking a large‐scale and highly toxic Arctic algal bloom: Rapid detection and risk communication - Fachon - Limnology and Oceanography Letters - Wiley Online Library

[Michael Hayes]

"Scientific Significance Statement:

Climate warming is expanding the potential for harmful algal blooms (HABs) to occur in polar waters, raising significant concerns about emerging human and ecosystem health impacts. Recent observations of HAB species and algal toxins in Arctic waters have established a clear need for a better understanding of bloom dynamics coupled with detection and mitigation strategies. During summer 2022, a massive bloom of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella was detected as it moved through the Bering Strait region. This bloom was exceptional in scale, density, and toxicity, far exceeding any events reported previously in Arctic waters. This unprecedented risk to the remote coastal communities of the region was communicated in near real time, providing the opportunity for rapid mobilization and establishing a framework for future event response."

https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lol2.10421

MH] Toxic blooms can likely be a useful biomass for mCDR as there are no large technical challenges in filtering algae out of the water and cooking it down to Biochar. 

There are benthic fields of unknown size that are rich in cysts waiting for warm water to make it down to the sea bed. In the NE Bering sea, the warm water has already reached the seabed and has likely killed off a few billion crabs. The toxic blooms, combined with the heat, can be devastating to Arctic marine wild life.