Toxins from harmful algae and marine bacteria or viruses can affect ecosystem health and homeland security, two vitally important issues to lawmakers in South Carolina and across the nation. The Port of Charleston is the busiest container port along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts and the focus of intense maritime-security efforts. Moreover, ocean health and water quality are inextricably linked to South Carolina's quality of life and economic development, especially its tourism industry, which generates nearly $15 billion annually.
This partnership combines research efforts at DOE's Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken with three of NOAA's facilities in the Charleston area?the Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research, the Hollings Marine Laboratory and the NOAA Coastal Services Center.
"The Savannah River National Laboratory and NOAA represent two of the largest federal laboratories in South Carolina focused on environmental health, so this agreement has far-reaching implications for the state and the nation," said Geoffrey I. Scott, Ph.D., director of the NOAA Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research. "Our laboratories have complementary capabilities, and this agreement will allow us to accomplish much more than either agency could achieve on its own."
"The Savannah River National Laboratory has a long history of expertise in environmental sciences and microbiology," said SRNL Laboratory Director G. Todd Wright, Ph.D., of Washington Savannah River Company, which operates the laboratory for DOE. SRNL's history includes the discovery in the 1970s of the water-borne microbe that causes Legionnaire's Disease, along with extensive work in the development of environmental assessment and restoration technologies.
Homeland security is a major research focus for SRNL. The lab has developed radiation sensors that are used in several port locations nationally and also is researching sensors to detect biological toxins and chemical hazards. "This agreement allows us to combine our skills with the vast expertise and resources of NOAA in a way that will provide benefits in numerous endeavors," said Wright.
The NOAA Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research is a national leader in researching algal toxins and the organisms that produce them. Harmful algal blooms, commonly known as "red tides," can cause toxins to accumulate in marine animals and lead to closures of recreational and commercial fisheries, deaths among waterfowl and marine mammals, and even human illness and mortality.
Another NOAA facility, the Hollings Marine Laboratory, fosters science and biotechnology solutions that help protect, maintain and restore coastal ecosystems. It also contains state-of-the-art facilities for working with highly toxic and infectious agents that may affect human health and is home to the Center of Excellence in Oceans and Human Health research.
The NOAA Coastal Services Center, which serves the nation's coastal resource programs, provides information and products pertinent to the nation's Integrated Ocean Observing System, orIOOS--a network of buoys, ships, satellites, underwater vehicles and other devices that collect data needed to detect and predict changes in coastal waters.
Scientific exchanges among the facilities have led to presentations, technical sessions at several homeland security workshops/symposia and ongoing research collaborations. This research partnership is expected to generate more extensive databases and spur advances in technologies that gauge and forecast ecosystem health.
Photo courtesy of NOAA
