NIcole Henderson: on behalf of the interstate technology and regulatory Council welcome to today's training the strategies for perfect PR for preventing and managing benthic harmful cyanobacteria blues.
NIcole Henderson: My name is Nicole Henderson i'm your moderator today from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
NIcole Henderson: The training is an introduction to our ICRC online guidance document of the same name that was published here in 2022 today's training is sponsored by the interstate technology and regulatory Council and hosted by the US EPA cleanup and information network, also known as close.
NIcole Henderson: It or see it is a program of the Environmental Council the States, it is a state led organization composed over 1000 members from state agencies Federal Government.
NIcole Henderson: academia Community stakeholders and industry, I to your team members participate in technical teams which produced tools resources and training courses, like the one you are participating in today.
NIcole Henderson: Before it or see disclaimer is available on it or see website, if you plan to use it or see materials, we ask that you review that policy in detail and be sure to credit it or see.
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NIcole Henderson: today's traders are listed here on the slide we're really excited to have them they helped put together our not only our benthic document for eight CDs, but also the.
NIcole Henderson: http one point tonics that was published in 2021 so with that I am going to take a moment and turn it over to gino our liberty and she is going to get us started on the introduction to benthic fan of bacteria, you know, let me get you all set up, and you can take it away.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Great well, thank you well thanks everyone for joining us today, so you might wonder why we developed a separate guidance document for benthic HC bees.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: So this figure shows the overlap between the 2021 planktonic cyanobacteria guidance document which we refer to as http one and the.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: benthic cyanobacteria guidance, which we refer to as http two.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: While much of the same guidance for playing tonic http is applies to benthic https there are some unique differences between benthic and planktonic cyanobacteria.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: That weren't a development of the benthic http guidance document Additionally, we have updated many of the resources from our planktonic http guidance document.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: To cover both planktonic and benthic https which you see in this figure as the shared and updated resources are the two sets of guidance overlap.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: So if you're not already familiar with cyanobacteria we do recommend that you check out the http one document covering planktonic cyanobacteria and review the http one online training.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Go back there we go, so you can find the introduction to benthic https in section one of the benthic http guidance document.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: So today i'll be introducing the visual differentiation of benthic versus planktonic https.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: I will discuss the ecological differences of benthic versus planktonic https, with a focus on water, clarity and nutrient levels.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: I will review the habitats, in which you can find benthic HC bees, I will also briefly go over how these differences can present a challenge and risk risk assessment and communication, which will be covered in more detail later in this training.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: So to briefly review some basic information about all cyanobacteria they are naturally occurring on are widely distributed across both aquatic and terrestrial environments.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: In both guidance documents we focused on those in fresh water and St Ray habitats cyanobacteria do have beneficial ecological rules such as serving as a food source for other organisms.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Providing oxygen via photosynthesis and some are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen into a form that's usable by algae and plants using specialized cells that you see indicated by the arrow.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: cyanobacteria have some unique unique characteristics that help them to form persistent blooms including forming resting or dormant stages, such as this and large cell that you see indicated by the second arrow.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: planktonic cyanobacteria which float in the water column can regulate their buoyancy using the gas vehicles that you see as the dark bodies in the cell indicated by the bottom most arrow.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: These are lacking and benthic cyanobacteria however benthic cyanobacteria can sometimes float due to the build up of oxygen bubbles within their mats from photosynthesis.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: So what do benthic and planktonic cyanobacteria look like and how can you tell them apart from other things and aquatic systems.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: We have a great visual guide to common harmful cyanobacteria and appendix a of the guidance document and the learn to identify cyanobacteria blooms video on the http to homepage.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: These identification resources have field photographs of blooms and microscopic images and they cover cyanobacteria by what form they grow in.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: such as in colonies or filaments and by what habitat they ruined, such as planktonic in the water columns, such as in the photo on the right.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: versus benthic growing on surfaces or sediments on the bottom of the aquatic habitat, such as in the photo on the left the identification resources also include examples of aquatic plants filaments algae other kinds of algae and Palin that can be mistaken for accumulations of cyanobacteria.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: The appearance of benthic cyanobacteria is very different from that of planktonic https.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: benthic https grow is attached or loosely associated master colonies, the ground bottom sediments or other substrates matt farmers are typically filament a species, while colonial species are often cockeyed cyanobacteria.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Many benthic matt farming species or motel So you can see, individual filaments moving within the mat when observed with the microscope these species can read consolidate into a matte if disturbed.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: As you see, in these photos the colors of benthic cyanobacteria tend to be darker, ranging from olive green to brown or black, in contrast to the vivid blue greens and other colors of decomposing planktonic blooms.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: These photos also illustrate a spectrum of growth forms within crests or mats and photo a at the upper left globular colonies and photo be.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: thick mats and photos see and mats floating to the surface and photo D.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: And then benthic matt communities can also be somewhat uniform but it's also common to have very diverse microbial communities within mats.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: matt communities may include a matrix of multiple filament to sign a bacteria colonial cockeyed cyanobacteria diverse algae.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: bacteria and proudest, all of which are in constant movement within the mats.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: planktonic blooms can also consist of multiple species and strains but in comparison benthic communities can be very diverse.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: For example, in this micro graph of the benthic matt from a lake in Wisconsin in addition to multiple filament assign a bacteria cyanobacteria tax of the MAC Community also contains small spire Kate bacteria purple sulfur bacteria I diatom and a ukulele a huge annoyed cell.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: cyanobacteria or photosynthesis photosynthesis photosynthetic so benthic cyanobacteria tend to grow in clearwater word light can reach them on the bottom.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Additionally, some species have adaptations for growing in lower lights lower light levels at greater depths.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: The growth of benthic HC bs in clearwater may seem counterintuitive when compared with planktonic to https which tend to be more prevalent in high nutrient waters that are turbid from abundance phytoplankton growth.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: In this photo from a lake and Wisconsin at the very clear water, you can see, dark cyanobacteria mats that have lifted off the bottom and are floating with the surrounding bright green mass aspire a gyro.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: benthic https can grow were surrounding waters contain low nutrient levels by taking up nutrients from sediment pour water or nutrients released from the aquatic macro fights on which they grow.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: cyanobacteria i'd are diverse and their nutrient preferences and there are many species, including benthic species that grow better in low nutrient conditions.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: For example, benthic cyanobacteria are dominant in some nutrient poor pristine Alpine and Arctic water bodies This is in contrast to planktonic https which tend to proliferate in utero thick water bodies are high nutrient levels support their growth.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: benthic https can grow on undisturbed sediments and slow moving pools of rivers, they can also grow on larger rocks and fast moving river water is in the upper photo.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Where they live in the narrow boundary layer below turbulent flow that would dislodge them.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: These flowing water habitats are very different in contrast to the stagnant waters, the typically support planktonic bloom development and accumulation.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: benthic https can also grow and protected or deep areas and lakes and reservoirs, such as the bottom photo which shows a map that has floated to the surface of a shallow protected Bay in a Wisconsin lake.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: benthic https don't always stay in place oxygen production during photosynthesis photosynthesis affects their dispersion and water bodies.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: oxygen production rates may be high enough and clear water to oxygen bubbles are formed and accumulate within mats, as you can see in this photo at the top of an urbina in a clear.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: river in California if enough bubbles accumulate the mats can lift off the substrate and are carried away by river flow and lakes, the bubbles can lift mats off the sediments, as illustrated and then lower photo.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Physical disturbance can remove mats from substrates as well in rivers thick mats are vulnerable to removal do to increase drag and turbulence as mass grow up out of the boundary layer and up into the flow.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: mechanical disturbances, such as wind waves boat weeks and waiting can also dislodge mats and allow them to be carried elsewhere passively by wind and currents.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Some of the aspects of benthic https I just reviewed can present challenges for communicating risk to the public and affect the public's ability to recognize benthic https review this in more depth and the communication strategies in Section five of the HDTV to document.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: These challenges include the fact that the public may only be familiar with the appearance of planktonic https.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: They may be unaware that benthic https grow was mass or colonies have muted dark colors and appear to have lower apparent densities is floating mats or attached benthic mats in comparison to planktonic gauge CBS.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: The public may also expect https to grow only a nutrient impaired lakes or reservoirs with turbid stagnant water rather than flowing water of streams or rivers or water bodies with clear, water and low nutrients.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: The challenges of identifying benthic https also plays a role in the challenges of communicating about toxins and risk assessment.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Like planktonic https some benthic http species can produce toxins mats can pose a higher risk when adjusted simply by their concentrated nature mats contain very high sell densities, and therefore could possibly contain correspondingly high toxin concentrations.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: The risks can be higher for animals as they are more likely to ingest mats either intentionally or accidentally by drinking water containing matt material such as the floating mats in the stream in the photo on the right.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: In the close up photo of this three centimeter wide matt on the left, you can see how dense the dark filaments are at the mat edges this mat probably contains hundreds of thousands of filaments with cell counts in the millions, and potentially high toxin concentrations.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: So next we have Ruth freeland of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will be covering the updated toxin section.
Ruth Briland: Thank you for that great introduction to set benthic cyanobacteria gina and our segue to focus in on the toxins produced by cyanobacteria also referred to as sign of toxins and, as he mentioned both planktonic and benthic species.
Ruth Briland: Of cyanobacteria are known to produce the Santa toxins this section is considered one of the shared resources and has hyperlinks to both the http one in http two documents and i'm going to talk more generally about.
Ruth Briland: Toxic sign of toxins and how they and threshold values that are associated with both planktonic and benthic cyanobacteria.
Ruth Briland: looks like it's not advancing oh there we go as a general outline to the sign toxin section we're going to talk about the exposure routes and the health impacts associated with Santa toxins some key features about.
Ruth Briland: Where when and for how long Santa toxins may be present and how this can affect exposure.
Ruth Briland: i'll briefly highlight the list of sign of toxins in irritants that we addressed in our document and how they are classified based on target Oregon.
Ruth Briland: And finally i'll delve into really the the threshold values and guidance values for specific types of sign of toxins noting that there are different values based on.
Ruth Briland: The target a human, animal and based on type of exposure and this is really the meat of the section, and the reason that we expanded sign of toxins from the introduction of each document, and it was due to you know more interest and new guidance and resources that were available.
Ruth Briland: So, in terms of exposure routes humans include exposure routes for humans include both on being near around an effective water body primarily.
Ruth Briland: Force, first and foremost swallowing water contaminated with some bacteria or toxins and the recreational threshold values for water that will present are based on incidental ingestion was swimming.
Ruth Briland: But i'm certain bacteria and those toxins can also be present and aerosols near.
Ruth Briland: In this water bodies and inhaled by people activities like water skiing or events where the water is really turned off and create more aerosols may have higher exposure.
Ruth Briland: And then activities where have direct contact with https.
Ruth Briland: hat can have higher exposure routes, especially when cyanobacteria cells aggregate under your clothing or swim suit or example, a young child may have maybe playing with chunks of matt material on the shoreline.
Ruth Briland: Additional human exposure routes include drinking contaminated water were treatment processes and maybe it may have been an effective and removing those senate toxins were eating.
Ruth Briland: fish, shellfish that may have accumulated SOx fan of toxins or even supplements on base containing cyanobacteria investigation and risks of content consuming fish and shellfish from water is affected by HIV is still an active area of research.
Ruth Briland: In terms of animals, we do know that they domesticated companion animals as well as wildlife have similar exposure routes to sign a toxins, however, they may have higher risks because of the duration of time.
Ruth Briland: That there's potentially spending in those water bodies, they can also be more sensitive to specific set of toxins.
Ruth Briland: Further, they may like avoidance behaviors or even be attracted to this brightly colored.
Ruth Briland: Platonic habs or it's even eat a large chunks of the map material so it's important to limit access to surface water bodies and provide alternative clean drinking water for your companion pets and domestic animals.
Ruth Briland: animals in the environment can also feed directly on cyanobacteria or other pray like the shellfish fish and macro environment that macro invertebrates that contains and it toxins in a process known as bio accumulation.
Ruth Briland: And then of course incidental injection can have occur after and animals in the water body at other grooming are looking there for others and then adjusting those sign of bacteria and toxins that contain.
Ruth Briland: terms of health effects, there are many different types of sign of toxins and irritants associative sign of bacteria and health effects are broad do this diversity.
Ruth Briland: And we've also classified them based on that target Oregon Oregon.
Ruth Briland: And we include a table in section two point to that list the specific sign of toxins and their individual health effects.
Ruth Briland: Published studies report that gastrointestinal distress fatigue lethargy or skin irritation like rashes or the most commonly reported symptoms.
Ruth Briland: Unfortunately, have been documented cases of animal unless it's in depth, particularly for dogs.
Ruth Briland: Do to Santa toxins and I already mentioned by accumulation and aquatic food well, but we do recognize this as a negative impact on the aquatic life and, but most of the work today has been done on planktonic H CBS and the role of medication abuse is still an active area of research.
Ruth Briland: Just as he bees are the same bacteria or spaceland totally dynamic production occurrence of sign of toxins can also very over space and time.
Ruth Briland: And just because of bloomer matt is present, it may not have the genetic capability or be triggered tactically produce toxins it's also important to note that sometimes generous species.
Ruth Briland: Had that happen associated with multiple sign of toxins, but then again, not all Center bacteria produce those kind of toxins phytoplankton ID and seeing the filament like the one pictured in the middle, the Center can indicate the potential.
Ruth Briland: Based on that published research but not actually the President or amount of cyanobacteria i'll add that in our visual ID and our guidance, it notes, which scientists toxins are associated with specific types of cyanobacteria.
Ruth Briland: And another key concept here is that Center toxins are generally retained inside of cyanobacteria cells or term interest sailor toxins do this at steadily a higher risk associated with.
Ruth Briland: higher concentration of cells one notable exception is for a cylinder robson that is actively transport, and all this, so the toxins can be released when the cell membranes break open either during subtle ISIS.
Ruth Briland: And that concept is illustrated by a little figure to the right, where the Little Red triangles represent a sign of toxin or dispersing from that lower filament.
Ruth Briland: laces can occur during natural balloon decay or after a chemical treatment to water like i'll decide or an ox dating.
Ruth Briland: treatment during during my treatment process or even when they've been adjusted like after dogs for the digestive process can break over those cells and release the toxins.
Ruth Briland: We do present degradation rates in our document and these can vary, based on the type of sign of toxin and environmental conditions.
Ruth Briland: However, these values are specific for the extracellular form of the toxin intracellular sign of toxins can persist and there was intact cells and the toxins have been detected and dry senate bacteria material and sediment samples.
Ruth Briland: here's our list of the specifics on it toxins that irritants covered in our document.
Ruth Briland: they're grouped into classes, based on the target Oregon and health effects you'll notice that many of these are plural and i've noted that.
Ruth Briland: Because there are different structural variance also referred to as conjures of specific types of toxins.
Ruth Briland: The ones and bolts and read bullet have published threshold values that will delve into more and I also want to note Microsystems tend to be the one most common to planktonic http events, whereas the neurotoxins antitoxin a in particular are commonly associated with benthic http events.
Ruth Briland: For assigning toxin thresholds, if this is based on a concept that there is a level at which no adverse health effects is expected during a typical exposure scenario.
Ruth Briland: And, in general, these will be presented in a concentration of the toxin for either a volume, like the leader of water or in biomass per gram of safe dry weight of a map material.
Ruth Briland: The components that are needed, end up developing that threshold equation or a reference dose like a toxicity study.
Ruth Briland: There are multiple uncertainty factors generally relating that toxicity study to the exposure and to the target animal.
Ruth Briland: And then the exposure assumptions like how much water is expected during swimming for typical size person.
Ruth Briland: And because we're dealing with different types of sign of toxins.
Ruth Briland: There can be different exposure periods something can be cute for a single event or short term exposure over a series of days or even evaluate that's considered protective over a lifetime of exposure.
Ruth Briland: The figures on on the right, we have at the top of our document, and they are hyperlinked so that you can get directly to the threshold value of interest, do you want to note threshold values exist for shellfish.
Ruth Briland: and fish consumption for humans, you can just click on that picture and i'll take you down to that section of the document.
Ruth Briland: terms of regulation and guidance, there still are no federal standards, like the mcs or maximum contaminant limit.
Ruth Briland: For sign of toxin or cyanobacteria however us EPA has published guidance values for two classes, a sign of toxins the hepatic toxins or liver toxins Microsystems and slash matson.
Ruth Briland: And both recreational water swimming exposure and then in finish drinking water we've gone through and looked at the states that have adopted either those us EPA thresholds or develop their own.
Ruth Briland: Guidance values, and we have created these two figures here, showing which states have threshold values for which sign of toxins.
Ruth Briland: addition to the US, the World Health Organization has developed guidance back value, specifically for my persistent lr that's one specific structural variance and toxin eight cylinders prompts and sacks of toxins.
make a few more key notes about relating second toxin threshold values in matt material, we do not have threshold values for human consumption material it's not unexpected suppose your route, but we do present some information one, how would you go about that.
Ruth Briland: And in terms of exposure during recreational exposure to have event, we have a case study from Zion National Park, but they've might have looked at multiple sampling methods to try to relate recreational values in water to.
Ruth Briland: advisory levels at those recreation areas, so one step is to modify the sampling protocol to still collect a water sample and compare with a threshold value and micrograms per liter they've gone in to.
Ruth Briland: create a disturbance and try to release as much benthic material, as would be expected under worst case scenario.
Ruth Briland: In addition to that they have passive sampling devices, but noting that these only detect the presence of extra cellular sign of toxins because they don't and.
Ruth Briland: relate directly with the attack cells, and they also have a tiered advisory system based on side of toxin concentrations, as well as other information and looking specifically at math based consumption thresholds for dogs and cattle California, is the only state that had values for that.
And now I will shift hand it over to thea fredriksen to talk more about monitoring.
Thea Fredrickson: Perfect Thank you very much, so for this next portion of the training, our goal is going to be to discuss the differences and practically monitoring for benefit versus planktonic hdd.
Thea Fredrickson: i'm also going to go over a method selection tool we have updated in http two and then i'll discuss a little bit about the basic benthic cyanobacteria monitoring program and a response plan.
Thea Fredrickson: I hopefully it's clicking forward doesn't seem to be.
Thea Fredrickson: No Okay, so it wouldn't be a you know, a zoom webinar if there wasn't a technical difficulty, you too.
Thea Fredrickson: So one of the first things that I think a lot of people are going to be curious about when they're hearing about the differences between them, they can play tonic https.
Thea Fredrickson: is how does monitoring for benthic https differ than monitoring sampling tonics a lot of you might already have a planktonic monitoring program in place and you're wondering how you can incorporate these benefit https into your existing monitoring plan.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, one of those first key differences i'd really like to point out is that oftentimes one of the very first steps in most planktonic monitoring plans is using visual assessment to confirm whether it blooms present.
Thea Fredrickson: And while that may may work well for obviously Docklands like seen in this picture that doesn't really work for benthic blooms, and this is because Ben affleck Williams, can be a lot more cryptic in nature.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, because of this, you might need specialized equipment to help you.
Thea Fredrickson: get a visual test a visual assessment of benthic looms that you don't typically use and your planktonic monetary program and the specialized equipment can be things like using snorkel or scuba gear or using a bath so.
Thea Fredrickson: Okay, and here's a picture of about the scope, if you didn't know what that was.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, in addition to meeting specialized equipment actually lay eyes on a bed the glue.
Thea Fredrickson: To accurately collect samples authentic material, you may need to use tools that allow you to sample the bottom of the water body.
Thea Fredrickson: Whereas an uplink tonic bloom you're generally sampling surface water, but that will really help you characterize them that bloom.
Thea Fredrickson: And so to collect samples of materials from the bottom of your water body you'll get need specialized equipment such as opposed to dredge seen here or awake that can be dragged along the dragged along the bottom of your water body to help you bring benthic material to the surface.
Thea Fredrickson: And then another big key difference between monitoring to these two types of https is the actual sample you're going to collect, while in the field.
Thea Fredrickson: So typically in planktonic HDTV monitoring you're going to collect water or phone samples, whereas for benthic looms you'd be more interested in collecting matter clarifying samples.
Thea Fredrickson: And this is because collecting just a water sample isn't going to accurately characterize your bed the http, and this is because, as toxins mentioned a lot of the toxins are actually going to be contained within that matt material.
Thea Fredrickson: And so to get an accurate representation of what you're dealing with you need to sample that matt will purify material.
Thea Fredrickson: And one of the ways that you can do that is using artificial substrate I show here, where you can leave it out of the site and matt.
Thea Fredrickson: purified material can colonize or artificial substrate and you can consistently sample that substrate over time to get an idea of the bed thick material in your site location.
Thea Fredrickson: Additionally, once samples are actually collected it's important to note that different side of toxins and toxin containers are going to be more commonly associated with your benthic https compared to your planktonic each of these.
Thea Fredrickson: Therefore, you may need to order additional tests, such as what we call a P talks or potentially toxic genetic screen that can help you identify the species present in your sample.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, once you know what species is present in your sample it can help you narrow down which Diana toxins, you might need to test for.
Thea Fredrickson: Thankfully, though, once you determine which toxins you're interested in sampling for.
Thea Fredrickson: The actual underlying analytical methods to analyze signer toxins remain the same for both planktonic and benefits, and so, if you're already using lc Ms Ms or using eliza you can continue to use that, for your benthic https.
Thea Fredrickson: There might just be a very slight difference in how you initially process nat vs water samples.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, just to reiterate what toxins was talking about about threshold values is those existing threshold guidelines that exists for common cyan of toxins.
Thea Fredrickson: are commonly referring to water samples, and not all of those threshold values can be applied to benthic math symbols, so you need to keep that in mind as you're collecting Sino toxin data, whether it's for monitoring purposes or for information purposes.
Thea Fredrickson: So well you know benthic cyanobacteria threshold guidelines and values are kind of catching up to what we already know about playing tonics.
Thea Fredrickson: There are other methods we can use to understand whether we're dealing with a benthic hdd blue and one of those methods is what we call percent cover as a threshold value.
Thea Fredrickson: And this is when you use a quarter out of unknown size in an area and you watch.
Thea Fredrickson: watch that far back to see what percentage becomes colonized by benthic material and then based on the percentage of coverage of epic material in that quarter, it can put you into surveillance mo.
Thea Fredrickson: Which means you just monitor that area more frequently, it could put you into alert mode, which means maybe you start testing material for say no toxins.
Thea Fredrickson: Or can put you into action mode where maybe you start posting signage or something else, and this is an example of a threshold value that's used by the New Zealand government.
Thea Fredrickson: Currently, that they use with great success it's also a great example of a method that works well for that the gauge CDs, but doesn't apply to play https.
Thea Fredrickson: Sorry guys no not clicking gosh.
Thea Fredrickson: There we go okay perfect so when we talk about building a monitoring plan they're going to be several important steps to take, and these steps are going to be the same, whether you're monitoring for planktonic or benefits or both.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, first and foremost, you need to decide what your overall monitoring goal is going to be.
Thea Fredrickson: Because your overall goal is really going to influence which factors you actually monitor for, for instance, if public safety is your main concern, then you might be more interested in monitoring for a sign on toxins, as opposed to cyanobacteria cell density.
Thea Fredrickson: Additionally, up front you're going to want to decide on your budget and the level of training you're willing to invest into your monitoring Program.
Thea Fredrickson: but luckily for you http two has taken a lot of the guesswork out of this and we have created a tool that can help you decide on analytical methods that can help you get the information you need.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, this is actually a screenshot what the analytical tool is going to look like.
Thea Fredrickson: And as you can see here in the top corner, you can choose your target analyzed up interest.
Thea Fredrickson: And so you can look at planktonic so you can look at them fix or you can just look at saving the toxins, it can give you information on whether or not a lab is required, and it can give you basic turnaround time.
Thea Fredrickson: And because this is a benthic training, after all, we will go ahead and click planktonic cyanobacteria because we're not interested in that.
Thea Fredrickson: There we go.
Thea Fredrickson: So then click that and then you'll see here that just the methods listed out are going to be for benthic cyanobacteria.
Thea Fredrickson: And if you look at the here and display in the back to your column, you can see, which methods will give you what type of information, so if you're interested in just presence or absence these methods can tell you that if you're interested in identifying species.
Thea Fredrickson: These methods will help you with that and, as I mentioned, identifying your species can help you narrow down which say no toxins may be present in your system so that can be a very useful tool to have or you can just look at density and abundance.
Thea Fredrickson: So you're not really you don't really care if it's playing tonics or.
Thea Fredrickson: Or what, in your system we really just interested in what say no toxins might be present, so we get unplugged those.
Thea Fredrickson: And you can look at different information about the same no toxins that might be present in your sample so you can just do presence absence, you could look at different conjures.
Thea Fredrickson: Which toxins mentioned that they have a lot of different conferences, you need to look out for you can also just look at total cyan and toxins that might be present.
Thea Fredrickson: And then also this can tell you whether your result types are going to be.
Thea Fredrickson: Quantitative qualitative semi qualitative it can tell you what type of sampling This does, they can give you also those relative estimates of cost and the level of training, necessary to complete these different methods.
Thea Fredrickson: So that can really help you narrow down your analytical methods.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, of course, after you've decided on your analytical methods, you need to make sure that you pick field methods that are going to support those analytical goals that you have.
Thea Fredrickson: And, thankfully, we also have a table for that help you narrow down which of these field methods will match those goals.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, for instance, if you're taking a look at this table and you've decided that you're interested in cyan or toxins both planktonic inventing you can see here.
Thea Fredrickson: that something like a passive sampler is green for both Diana toxins planktonic and benthic it works and still water flowing water.
Thea Fredrickson: And then it can work in different locations in different depth, so you can go along into this table and look at which field methods most accurately match your individual situation.
Thea Fredrickson: Alright, so after deciding on the field methods and analytical methods obviously you'll need to think about the location and frequency of monitoring activities, which again this really pleased back into what your overall goals are going to be.
Thea Fredrickson: So, public safety Is your goal you'll probably want to sample in an area that has high recreation potential, such as along the shoreline you'll probably want to sample it pretty frequently either weekly or bi weekly.
Thea Fredrickson: But if you're interested in something like blue ecology, then you'd want to pick maybe an area that's more undisturbed by regulators something like more out further than the water column.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, most importantly, you're going to want to start thinking about what your organization is going to do if, during your routine monitoring you find that your results start exceeding threshold levels and values.
Thea Fredrickson: And then you'll want to think about what action your organization organization can take if that happens.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, this is when our monitoring plan turns into what we call a responsible.
Thea Fredrickson: And so response plan is going to.
Thea Fredrickson: outline a separate set of actions that your organization will take in response to an HDTV related event, and this could be a fish kill a dog death or blue or like I said those monitoring results showing high threshold levels of sign or toxins.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, this response plan should outline what level of either cyanobacteria or sign of toxins is going to spur you into action and then, of course.
Thea Fredrickson: outline what that action is going to take so does your organization have the ability to close down in area experiencing a bloom can you post signs, can you implement nutrient management can you afford to do more monitoring in the case of one of these events.
Thea Fredrickson: And it's really important to decide what you're going to do, ahead of time.
Thea Fredrickson: Because you want to make sure that your plan is consistent for each event and you want to make sure that your plan is ultimately going to be manageable long term.
Thea Fredrickson: And this is because it's easier to respond to one bloom or easy to respond to one dog illness report, but what is your organization going to do if you get calls every other week about a blue, can you.
Thea Fredrickson: afford the time and manpower to go out for every single blue it's just really important that you decide on this ahead of time and then you stick to it and have a consistent response for all of these events.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, with that I am going to just leave you with a few key things to remember.
Thea Fredrickson: Ultimately, when creating a monitoring plan you need to think of what your goals are and then try to stick to them as you continue to make those decisions about analytical methods and field methods.
Thea Fredrickson: We highly suggest you use our selection tools to help you evaluate those options and then choose the methods that are going to suit your ultimate goals.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, of course, devise a response plan before you need it and then just ultimately be realistic about your monitoring and response capabilities, it can be a big undertaking so make sure you kind of understand what you're getting into before you begin.
Thea Fredrickson: And then, with that i'm going to hand it over to Ben holcomb from the utah department of environmental quality to talk about management for the implications.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Great great Thank you feel.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Alright yeah we're going to cover the this topic management criteria it's found in section for the document.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So the goal of this section is to assemble management strategies for treating H CBS including benthic HC bs in the water.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So this encompasses both preventative and intervening approaches the section is supported with an interactive selection tool to help you identify the most applicable treatment strategies and a compilation of fact sheets that describes the pros and cons of each strategy.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Essentially, section for this document is a recast of section six from hgtv one.
Ben H Utah DEQ: It contains all the same features in the web portal, as identified in the HC be one training, such as the strategy compiled hot link table with PDF download as seen here with table 4.1.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Here we go.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So in this short overview i'd like to cover the specific changes that have occurred in the interactive selection tool.
Ben H Utah DEQ: For more complete review of the strategies, the tool and the scenarios and how do you implement these strategies, please refer to the http one management and control strategies training.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Which is archived on our web portal.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Okay, first the management strategy selection tool has been cross linked with HC be one and two, so both documents share the same tool here's a screenshot of the tool here.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Primarily, the tool has been reconfigured so it's easier to use, essentially, the number of selection categories have been reduced, and because we're including benthic bloom habitat rivers have been added as a water body type.
Ben H Utah DEQ: The variables that were initially part of the selection credit category has been provided as part of the table information, such as the level of supporting.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Peer reviewed documentation, as noted here.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Along with the the physical attributes of a water body for which the strategy is most applicable.
Ben H Utah DEQ: And finally strategy fact sheets are hot links in the tool and they now include benthic related material.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So with that we're going to switch over to the communication module and i'll introduce him that's me so you've got me for another round on communication response strategies.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So let's wrap up our training with this final module.
Ben H Utah DEQ: This section or this part of the document is found in Section five of the http to guidance document.
Ben H Utah DEQ: The goal of the communication response planning section is to assemble the best practices, resources and examples of response planning and communicating benthic https.
Ben H Utah DEQ: The general practices provided in the communication response of http section five of the web portal and the associated training are unchanged, with respect to benthic blooms.
Ben H Utah DEQ: But today i'll cover a few specific areas where new practices should be considered when addressing benthic he beats.
Ben H Utah DEQ: During this training i'll cover the companion information http to communication response planning and these areas.
Ben H Utah DEQ: The reporting and notification and coordination.
Ben H Utah DEQ: visual observation and identification section drinking water coordination planning.
Ben H Utah DEQ: And the advisories outreach and signage.
Ben H Utah DEQ: First, with reporting notification and coordination part a good first practice would be to consider new potential water bodies.
Ben H Utah DEQ: As discuss an introduction benthic age to bees are more likely to occur and water bodies that are clear, or they may be found in flowing water is like rivers or streams.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So after considering this process, there are likely new key partners, stakeholders and agencies that have connections to these waters.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So now's the best time to begin, including them into your HIV program activities.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Next is to incorporate new information as provided from the introduction section, such as benthic habitat characteristics toxins into your outreach and education incorporate benthic blooms into your overall public outreach.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Particularly provide the emphasis on the exposure risks of mats versus the water itself and include frequently associated toxins.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Finally, ensure that you inform your stakeholders in our respective agency partners related to recreation drinking water, agriculture and livestock producers.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So to assist your coordination efforts.
Ben H Utah DEQ: of incorporating this new information we've included new benthic HDTV imagery to our visual guide and we've also created a new identification video.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So ensure communication plans are evaluated and emphasized your stakeholders and collaborators have this new paradigm that benthic blooms can be found in clearwater are flowing waters like streams and rivers, not simply your trophy stagnant waters.
Ben H Utah DEQ: In addition, as mentioned in the monitoring training, there are new field and lab approaches to consider so point your collaborators, to the monitoring and toxin sections.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Of the document and the respective trainings to understand those specific challenges and approaches to address benthic blooms.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So the information that I just covered regarding bloom identification habitats and monitoring should be directly coordinated with drinking water providers, for instance, recommend reviewing plans with drinking water providers to ensure they address the nuance that benthic blooms create.
Ben H Utah DEQ: As for private drinking water sources, it would be a good practice to identify and develop outreach materials as it relates to their specific needs and capabilities, please visit section 5.1 point three for examples and links to resources that we've compiled.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So, regarding your state or tribes health advisory process or guidance so important evaluate these existing documents, particularly at the advisory thresholds in place.
Ben H Utah DEQ: You may have heard this discussed in the early training modules but due to the nature of benthic blooms particularly how sample may be collected.
Ben H Utah DEQ: it's difficult to compare existing thresholds specifically federal criteria are based, as a concentration, whereas a benthic sample is more likely to be collected or reported as a unit or.
Ben H Utah DEQ: A unit of mass across an area, for example, so what do you do you either need to modify your sampling technique to generate a concentration based sample.
Ben H Utah DEQ: or determine appropriate threshold guidance for an area based sample.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So either way it's important to incorporate this information into your existing guidance, so that your agency partners, stakeholders and the public understand this nuance.
Ben H Utah DEQ: In addition, as mentioned in the toxins training module benthic blooms tend to include large concentrations of antitoxin a and its variance.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Do the unstable nature of these toxins outside of the cell you'll often encounter scenarios with low levels in the water and extremely high levels in the mats there are also no federal recommended thresholds for antitoxin a rather variance.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So, ensure that the majors you collect are appropriate to issue an advisory under your current approach and if not, what mechanisms or procedures are appropriate to issue advisories for benthic blokes.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Specifically reevaluate your approaches to post advisories for benthic blooms and how those decisions can impact your current approach from using signage.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Your press releases your website updates and social media for guidance examples and resources like this table from Zion National Park check out section 5.1 point four.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So, specifically in regards to signage the guidance recommends emphasizing and translating visually the differences of maths versus water.
Ben H Utah DEQ: And emphasizing the potential higher risks to pets and livestock.
Ben H Utah DEQ: For instance, if you haven't updated your guidance to accommodate how advisors will be formally issued you might want to consider creating alert or outreach science to inform the public when these balloons are president and the risk they pose.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Please see section 5.1 Point five for examples and resources like this sign from the California have network.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So i've just covered a few specifics, besides those examples and the compiled resources provided through this section they're also three case studies found in Appendix B that provides more contextual information.
Ben H Utah DEQ: We have an example from lake travis and Texas, the highly visited virgin river in Zion national park and the Russian river and California, the diversity of these case studies both ecologically and their approaches should provide useful context to your Program.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So finally here's a list of all the available resources for you to consider all of these can be accessed from our from the diagram and found on our http homepage.
Ben H Utah DEQ: They include the section that I just covered communication response planning.
Ben H Utah DEQ: The learning to recognize https video and the visual guide, which is a shared resource resource it's found in between the documents.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Each section or each document has a recommendation section that i'd encourage you to review.
Ben H Utah DEQ: As I mentioned that the case studies found in Appendix B and http two.
Ben H Utah DEQ: And the various tools that we've we've compiled through http one in http two and then, finally, the trainings that we've provided in the past, and today will be available on our web portal for review at any time.
Ben H Utah DEQ: And with that I will turn it over to Nicole for some questions great thanks man, I appreciate it.
NIcole Henderson: Alright, so I am just going to open it up here for those that have not had a chance you can use the Q amp a pod.
NIcole Henderson: i'm at the bottom of your zoom screen to populate any questions for our trainers, I am going to get started, just in the interest in trying to answer, several of these So the first question here is do benthic mats also release toxins into the water and can they be a hazard.
Ruth Briland: hi this is Ruth i'll go ahead and try to answer that question.
Ruth Briland: Yes, there are types of benthic cyanobacteria that produce Santa toxins, and if those individual cells leiser break open, they can certainly release them into the water column that we also think about them that's lifting up and.
Ruth Briland: be the material itself may contain being present up in the water column, the only thing i'll add is that, based on because there is such a diversity of cyanobacteria some of the hearty.
Ruth Briland: filaments that have additional sheets or structure surrounding on that may be more commonly associated with benthic sound bacteria.
Ruth Briland: They may be less sensitive than other types, maybe planktonic or just other types in general to say it i'll decide or chemical treatment, so they just been more hardy less resistant to.
To licensing and breaking up and but it's still possible think we.
Hopefully that answers the question great thanks through.
NIcole Henderson: Another one here if benthic HDTV often occur and nutrient poor waters, what do you suggest, is a long term management strategy, aside from nutrient control.
NIcole Henderson: Any trainers if you're trying to talk, you are on mute.
NIcole Henderson: And anybody can take the question any of the trainers, if not i'm going to go on to the next one, and we can try to come back and.
Thea Fredrickson: jump in on this one.
A little bit yeah.
Thea Fredrickson: So there's not a lot known about long term management strategies for benefit hdd specifically because we do know that can occur in nutrient poor water and nutrient rich water.
Thea Fredrickson: Not a lot is known about exactly what.
Thea Fredrickson: Has that gene turn on to start producing toxins, and so, sometimes we don't know if the gene to create toxins is turned on because of new like lack of nutrients or excess of nutrients so.
Thea Fredrickson: it's kind of still being studied and understood like trying people trying to understand it more.
Thea Fredrickson: So i'm not sure I would suggest nutrient control just yet, for them to gauge CDs, there was also a similar question about.
Thea Fredrickson: Incorporating raking and removing of benthic https to reduce the https and public access areas.
Thea Fredrickson: And again, that can be something that's a little bit tricky to do, because when you rake or break apart, some of these benthic mats you can be releasing more toxins in the Bay area, as you are removing that mask material by breaking it open.
Thea Fredrickson: So we wouldn't recommend that just this time, yet either.
NIcole Henderson: yeah thanks for jumping in on that one and you got two for one there so great job next question was do plant growth inhibitors work on cyanobacteria gina.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: hi thanks for your question how if by growth inhibitors your you mean herbicides or pesticides.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: There are some that might work, I would recommend looking at the the different management strategies and the the guidance document.
Gina LaLiberte - WI DNR: Some of the herbicides that are used on aquatic plants at cyanobacteria in general, so, including planktonic cyanobacteria there have been some studies that show that they do have some resistance to those, so I hope that answered your question.
Wait.
please feel free to take back in if you have further questions.
NIcole Henderson: And then I knew, you had one that you wanted to respond.
Ben H Utah DEQ: To and i'm having a hard time locating the question itself, do you yeah.
Ben H Utah DEQ: yeah the question was please provide examples of any city that had issues with each CBS in their water sources and what they did.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So, I guess, I have a few examples of both one one's a planktonic and one's a benthic one the planktonic one.
Ben H Utah DEQ: The most important thing is that they.
Ben H Utah DEQ: They paid attention to what was in their source water typically.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Drinking water facilities are really only looking at what's coming into their plant immediately into their plant rather than you know further upstream perhaps it's coming from a reservoir.
Ben H Utah DEQ: So, for example in utah we've partnered with some cities where their municipal supplies from a specific water body and we're evaluating it from a recreational purpose and we're also sharing that information with the Drinking Water Facility.
Ben H Utah DEQ: about the latest information, particularly cyanobacteria accounts, so that that way they're more prepared when it does happen, and then they have their own approaches within the within their plan to treat it and we've provided those resources in our http one document specifically on.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Provided providing resources developed through a WW a.
Ben H Utah DEQ: on how to treat within the plant and then terms of the benthic one that's very similar it's.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Open communication, ensuring that they're aware that their their source water may have issues and in that case that that facility took on the added responsibility of.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Testing for toxins in their influence as well as their F1 just throughout the whole duration of the event, just because they want to provide that confidence and satisfaction to their.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Their.
Ben H Utah DEQ: To the public essentially.
Ben H Utah DEQ: Great thanks fun.
NIcole Henderson: thea I knew that you saw a question that you would like to read and respond to.
Thea Fredrickson: Yes, so we have question that says, can you suggest any methods that are useful for surveillance and identifying at risk areas, and a large watershed.
Thea Fredrickson: I need aerial psycho cyan and imaging or passive toxin sampling bias that, and so I thought this was a good question I myself work in a.
Thea Fredrickson: Very large watershed and we had this same exact issue, unfortunately with benthic https aerial photo cyan and isn't going to be super useful and trying to find kind of a hotspot area.
Thea Fredrickson: I would suggest doing is you pick out with the highest recreation potential areas that you have, and you can quantify those as at risk areas and pay special attention to.
Thea Fredrickson: incorporate some sort of monitoring whether it's a passive stats and blue which a lot of people do use prevent the hdd monitoring.
Thea Fredrickson: or go out and collect algae samples and do what we call a P talks analysis so personally what we've done is collected a composite sample algal like math material paraphrase material.
Thea Fredrickson: Combine that together, and then look for the species present in that sample that are capable of producing toxins.
Thea Fredrickson: And then you can get a general idea of what species are present throughout your watershed and then you can start looking for Science or toxins that way to kind of help you narrow it down.
NIcole Henderson: And I think we're just performance flat.
NIcole Henderson: trainers any other questions that jump out at you, that would benefit the large group here.
NIcole Henderson: Otherwise, they are responding directly to some of the specific questions that have come in.
Thea Fredrickson: I will say i'm seeing a lot of questions about analytical methods for benthic https.
Thea Fredrickson: If you look at the guidance document we have posted we have all of that information on there about the different analytical methods that can be used for both planktonic investigation bs.
Thea Fredrickson: And so, all that information is out there on the guidance document I was just looking at it, we even link different um you know protocols that have been used to, so I think you'll find all the information you're looking for in our guidance documents.
NIcole Henderson: Fantastic plug so thank you yeah I think with that i'm just gonna remind everybody that I did go ahead and chat and I.
NIcole Henderson: Not only did I put that guidance document link in case you have not had a chance to review it, but I also put the feedback form.
NIcole Henderson: Information there, and as a reminder, we asked for any feedback on the training and we had a lot of questions about it is being recorded it, it will be available in the clue in archives as a registered attendee you will receive an email as soon as the.
NIcole Henderson: Recording is available in those archives and then we welcome you to share that information, we will also be doing this, one more time in 2022 so stay tuned for and help promote the class for us and.
NIcole Henderson: Final reminder with the feedback form at the bottom right hand corner you'll see a checkbox if you click that box that will send you the certificate after you submit the form and it will be emailed to you.
NIcole Henderson: Any other questions you can reach us at it or see it or see web.org.
NIcole Henderson: And thank you so much for joining us today trainers fantastic job thanks so much for all the work that went into putting the training together and responding to these questions and everybody, I hope you have a great rest of the day.