U n ive r s i t y o f M i a m i s c i e n t i s t s a r e s t u dy i n g a p a r t i c u l a rly i n s i d i o u s way i n wh i c h t o x i c a l g a l b l o o m s m ay h a r m h u m a n h e a l t h t h r o u g h t h e ve r y a i r we b r e a t h e .
Toxic Stew MANY SOUTH FLORIDIANS GRIPE WITH GOOD REASON ABOUT THEIR STRESSFUL, TIME-CONSUMING WORK COMMUTES. But few can match the one made by Larry Brand, professor of marine biology and ecology in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, multiple times last year. It wasn’t just the distance—a drive of two and a half hours or more from his South Miami home—but what awaited the phytoplankton ecologist when he arrived at his destination: foul hotspots of the toxic algae bloom outbreak that afflicted Florida for more than 10 months. Beginning a typical day at the Caloosahatchee River, just outside the city of Fort Myers, Brand would submerge a one-liter bottle attached to a makeshift PVC pole to draw a sample of the turbid water. Capping the bottle, he would move on to several other affected bodies of water from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, repeating the ritual at each site before heading home as the sun sank in the west. >
24 MIAMI Spring 2019 miami.edu/magazine