All five Great Lakes now have harmful algal blooms. Warmer summer temperatures give the blooms longer lifespans, and toxins are going airborne. A new Michigan center, with Gregory Dick as director, will tackle this and more
Environmental microbiologist Professor Gregory Dick has been studying harmful algal blooms (HABs), which infamously turn Lake Erie into a toxic green pea soup each summer. Since 2014, when HABs caused a drinking water crisis in Toledo, Ohio, public awareness, safety policies, and research around the blooms have all increased.
But so, too, have the blooms. And their health impacts remain largely unknown.
“One of the main breakthroughs has been learning that these toxins can aerosolize and get transported for kilometers in the air,” Dick said. “There may be a greater risk from inhalation than drinking. We need more laboratory studies because the risks really remain unknown. But it’s concerning that coastal communities could be impacted by this without ever being in the water or drinking it.”
Toxin aerosolization and human health impacts will be one of the main research areas for the Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health, which in 2024 moved to Ann Arbor from Bowling Green State University with $6.5 million in new funding. Dick will serve as the center’s director.
The interdisciplinary center will also explore how climate change is affecting HABs and different toxins, discover new toxins, read the genomes of toxin-producing bacteria, and study how toxins impact people. Dick’s work falls in the areas of toxin, genome, and climate, but he is eager to work with health science researchers through his new role. Collaborators at the center are already working with local health departments and enrolling participants in health studies.
Working closely with Great Lakes communities will be key, both for public safety and for data collection, Dick said.
“There’s anecdotal evidence out there from the fishing industry, for instance,” Dick said. “They talk about the ‘August cough,’ where fishers who are out on the water during blooms are getting respiratory issues.” Information like that can help researchers know where and when to look for issues.
Dick tempers his optimism. Despite knowing for years that excess nutrients from agriculture drive blooms in Lake Erie, there’s been little measurable improvement on that front, he said. “The root cause has not been addressed,” he said—that falls to the legislature. “We’re conducting the research that would inform policymakers.”
There is good news, Dick said. Since the 2014 drinking water crisis in Toledo, health officials and communities are better prepared to respond to blooms. “Odds are good that nothing like that will happen in Toledo again,” he said.
