The current and future risk of harmful algal blooms in the North Sea

• Main Author: De Rijcke, Maarten
• Other Authors: Janssen, Colin, De Schamphelaere, Karel, Vandegehuchte, Michiel
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Ghent University. Faculty of Bioscience Engineering 2017
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Earth and Environmental Sciences; North Sea; Harmful algal blooms; Nutrient competition; Environmental effects; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8540757; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8540757; https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8540757/file/8540758

The need to feed the world’s ever growing population has led to significant advances in agricultural practices, including the development and use of fertilizers across the globe. Some of these artificial nutrients end up in rivers and streams, ultimately leading to an imbalanced increase in nutrient levels of coastal areas around the globe. As a result of these additional nutrients, harmful algal blooms have increased in size, frequency and scale in marine ecosystems across the world. Harmful algal blooms are events in which one marine algae (macro- or micro-) grows to such an extent that it causes harm to the environment or the socioeconomic interests that take place in the marine environment. Despite economic impacts, much can still be learned about the conditions that allow HAB development, as well as the effects HABs have on ecosystems and ecosystem engineers. This PhD aims to elucidate a few HAB aspects that create a risk of HAB development in the Belgian part of the North Sea, and study the effects HABs could have on the one of the most abundant bivalves of the North Atlantic: the common mussel Mytilus edulis. Algal growth experiments are combined with field studies, exposure assessments, and data archeology to estimate the current and future risk of HABs in the North sea and provide regional policy advice.