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The Threefold Mission: Monitoring, Event
Response, and Basic Research.
| Monitoring: At
the forefront of the SCAEL’s mission and role as a natural resources
asset, is the monitoring of SC’s coast
for
HABs. Prior to 1999, very little was known or documented about HAB
events
in SC. Today, the SCAEL works as a state agency in conjunction with
federal programs (SCHABP, USES,
and ECOHAB) to establish a comprehensive HAB database. A
suite of environmental
and biological variables
are measured and recorded routinely from numerous sites spanning the SC
coastline (see
map). More on monitoring (here). |
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| Event
Response: The SCAEL also responds “on-call” to
sudden
fish kills or HAB events in estuaries, tidal creeks, and manmade ponds.
Our personnel
are ”first responders,” along with SCDHEC,
in the event of a fish
kill or bloom event reported by citizen observers. The SCAEL
immediately
collects vital information to assess the degree of disturbance,
characterize
the HAB, and advise management agencies as to an appropriate response. |
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| Basic
Research: Underlying and strengthening our
monitoring
and event-response efforts is a core program of basic research on HABs.
The SCAEL uses modern and classical approaches of ecology, physiology,
life history, genetics and cell biology to enlarge our understanding of
HAB formation and distribution. Our efforts further lead to improvement
of mitigation and remediation strategies for public and private
managers. |
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Mission
Statement
The mission of the South Carolina Algal Ecology
Laboratory
is to answer questions and generate insight about the causes of Harmful
Algal Blooms (HABs) in natural and manmade waters. Our diverse and
highly-skilled
personnel use the most modern technologies available to identify,
measure,
and predict HABs. Along with our collaborators, we seek to establish
baseline
information, generate testable hypotheses, and communicate our findings
to the government agencies, the scientific community and
public-at-large.
All content © 2003 S.C.A.E.L. any
use of contents
requires permission from the Webmaster.
Algal Ecology Labs--331 Fort Johnson
Road--Charleston,
SC 29414.
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