This book describes the present state of knowledge regarding the impact of cyanobacteria on health through the use of water. It considers aspects of risk management and details the information needed for protecting drinking water sources and recreational water bodies from the health hazards caused by cyanobacteria and their toxins. It also outlines the state of knowledge regarding the principal considerations in the design of programmes and studies for monitoring water resources and supplies and describes the approaches and procedures used.
The development of this publication was guided by the recommendations of several expert meetings concerning drinking water (Geneva, December 1995; Bad Elster, June
1996) and recreational water (Bad Elster, June 1996; St Helier, May 1997). An expert meeting in Bad Elster, April 1997, critically reviewed the literature concerning the toxicity of cyanotoxins and developed the scope and content of this book. A draft manuscript was reviewed at an editorial meeting in November 1997, and a further draft was
reviewed by the working group responsible for updating the Guidelines for Drinkingwater Quality in March 1998.

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Toxic cyanobacteria in water: a guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management.

Emerging recognition of two fundamental errors under-pinning past polices for natural resource issues heralds awareness of the need for a worldwide fundamental change in thinking and in practice of environmental management. The first error has been an implicit assumption that ecosystem responses to human use are linear, predictable and controllable. The second has been an assumption that human and natural systems can be treated independently. However, evidence that has been accumulating in diverse regions all over the world suggests that natural and social systems behave in nonlinear ways, exhibit marked thresholds in their dynamics, and that social-ecological systems act as strongly coupled, complex and evolving integrated systems. This article is a summary of a report prepared on behalf of the Environmental Advisory Council to the Swedish Government, as input to the process of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 26 August 4 September 2002. We use the concept of resilience—the capacity to buffer change, learn and develop—as a framework for understanding how to sustain and enhance adaptive capacity in a complex world of rapid transformations. Two useful tools for resilience-building in social-ecological systems are structured scenarios and active adaptive management. These tools require and facilitate a social context with flexible and open institutions and multi-level governance systems that allow for learning and increase adaptive capacity without foreclosing future development options.

https://bioone.org/journals/AMBIO-A-Journal-of-the-Human-Environment/volume-31/issue-5/0044-7447-31.5.437/Resilience-and-Sustainable-Development--Building-Adaptive-Capacity-in-a/10.1579/0044-7447-31.5.437.pdf

Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations

Although algal blooms, including those considered toxic or harmful, can be natural phenomena, the nature of the global problem of harmful algal blooms (HABs) has expanded both in extent and its public perception over the last several decades. Of concern, especially for resource managers, is the potential relationship between HABs and the accelerated eutrophication of coastal waters from human activities. We address current insights into the relationships between HABs and eutrophication, focusing on sources of nutrients, known effects of nutrient loading and reduction, new understanding of pathways of nutrient acquisition among HAB species, and relationships between nutrients and toxic algae. Through specific, regional, and global examples of these various relationships, we offer both an assessment of the state of understanding, and the uncertainties that require future research efforts. The sources of nutrients poten- tially stimulating algal blooms include sewage, atmospheric deposition, groundwater flow, as well as agricultural and aquaculture runoff and discharge. On a global basis, strong correlations have been demonstrated between total phos- phorus inputs and phytoplankton production in freshwaters, and between total nitrogen input and phytoplankton pro- duction in estuarine and marine waters. There are also numerous examples in geographic regions ranging from the largest and second largest U.S. mainland estuaries (Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System), to the Inland Sea of Japan, the Black Sea, and Chinese coastal waters, where increases in nutrient loading have been linked with the development of large biomass blooms, leading to anoxia and even toxic or harmful impacts on fisheries re- sources, ecosystems, and human health or recreation. Many of these regions have witnessed reductions in phytoplankton biomass (as chlorophyll a) or HAB incidence when nutrient controls were put in place. Shifts in species composition have often been attributed to changes in nutrient supply ratios, primarily N:P or N:Si. Recently this concept has been extended to include organic forms of nutrients, and an elevation in the ratio of dissolved organic carbon to dissolved organic nitrogen (DOC:DON) has been observed during several recent blooms. The physiological strategies by which different groups of species acquire their nutrients have become better understood, and alternate modes of nutrition such as heterotrophy and mixotrophy are now recognized as common among HAB species. Despite our increased un- derstanding of the pathways by which nutrients are delivered to ecosystems and the pathways by which they are assimilated differentially by different groups of species, the relationships between nutrient delivery and the development of blooms and their potential toxicity or harmfulness remain poorly understood. Many factors such as algal species presence/ abundance, degree of flushing or water exchange, weather conditions, and presence and abundance of grazers contribute to the success of a given species at a given point in time. Similar nutrient loads do not have the same impact in different environments or in the same environment at different points in time. Eutrophication is one of several mechanisms by which harmful algae appear to be increasing in extent and duration in many locations. Although important, it is not the only explanation for blooms or toxic outbreaks. Nutrient enrichment has been strongly linked to stimulation of some harmful species, but for others it has not been an apparent contributing factor. The overall effect of nutrient over- enrichment on harmful algal species is clearly species specific.

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Harmful Algal Blooms and Eutrophication: Nutrient Sources, Composition, and Consequences

Communities of microscopic plant life, or phytoplankton, dominate the Earth's aquatic ecosystems. This important new book by Colin Reynolds covers the adaptations, physiology and population dynamics of phytoplankton communities in lakes and rivers and oceans. It provides basic information on composition, morphology and physiology of the main phyletic groups represented in marine and freshwater systems and in addition reviews recent advances in community ecology, developing an appreciation of assembly processes, co-existence and competition, disturbance and diversity. Although focussed on one group of organisms, the book develops many concepts relevant to ecology in the broadest sense, and as such will appeal to graduate students and researchers in ecology, limnology and oceanography.

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The Ecology of Phytoplankton

The rise of harmful cyanobacteria blooms: The potential roles of eutrophication and climate change

Cyanobacterial toxin research and its application in Germany: a review of the current status.

The delivery of safe drinking water requires actions to be taken throughout the water cycle from the catchment to the point of consumption. The focus of any programme designed to deliver safe drinking water should therefore be the effective management and operation of water sources, treatment plants and distribution systems (whether piped or manual). This will demand action by water suppliers, environmental protection agencies and health bodies. WHO (2004) outline that the delivery of safe drinking water is most effectively achieved through a risk management framework, i.e. the " Framework for Safe Drinking-water " , that encompasses 5 key steps: 1. Establishing health based targets for drinking-water based on evaluation of health concerns; 2. An assessment of the water supply system to determine whether the water supply chain (from source through treatment to the point of consumption) as a whole can deliver water that meets the health based targets; 3. Identification and operational monitoring of the control measures in the drinking water supply that are of particular importance in securing drinking water safety; 4. Preparation of management plans documenting the system assessment and monitoring plans and describing actions to be taken in normal operating and incident conditions, including upgrading documentation and communication; 5. A system of independent surveillance to confirm that verifies that the above are operating properly. The establishment of water quality targets would typically be led by the health sector taking into account local health burdens. These are not discussed in detail in this text, but would include many of the considerations highlighted in Section I and would be established in relation to a reference level of public health risk determined as being tolerable. This would use either epidemiological or quantitative risk assessment procedures, which can be applied to both chemicals and microorganisms (WHO, 1996; Haas et al., 1999). More detail is available on establishment of water quality targets in the 3 rd edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality (2004) and in Havelaar and Melse (2003). The surveillance component would typically be undertaken by a regulatory agency, which in practice may be the health, environment or local government sector. This component would incorporate many of the issues identified in Sections II, IV and V of this book as means of monitoring of performance. Further descriptions of approaches to be used are available in a variety of texts linked to the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality (WHO, …

Water Safety Plans: risk management approaches for the delivery of safe drinking-water from groundwater sources.

Attenuation and colloidal mobilization of bacteriophages in natural sediments under anoxic as compared to oxic conditions.

This chapter deals with the policy and legal environment within which groundwater protection and management should operate. Effective policies for groundwater protection must take account of the institutional and cultural environment in the country, the interrelationship of quantity and quality of groundwater, financial viability of any proposed measures for protection and acceptability of the measures to society. Policies that are considered reasonable in some countries may not be acceptable in others. Therefore, where proposed policy builds on experience elsewhere, it is important that local values of the society are taken into account. For this reason, it is essential that effective policy development includes the public, government agencies and other stakeholders potentially affected at the earliest possible stage. The overall process of developing and implementing policies and strategic management for groundwater protection should therefore follow the route shown in Figure 20.1. Figure 20.1. Flow chart for groundwater protection. While step 3 of this process is discussed in some detail in Chapters 5 and 7 and criteria for developing specific protection concepts are discussed in Chapter 17, this chapter reviews the overall framework of governmental policy and institutions that facilitates their implementation. Such a framework provides an important context in which fragmental local initiatives and actions can be amalgamated to a comprehensive national or regional policy.

Ingrid Chorus

Papers

Cyanobacterial toxin research and its application in Germany: a review of the current status.

Water Safety Plans: risk management approaches for the delivery of safe drinking-water from groundwater sources.

Attenuation and colloidal mobilization of bacteriophages in natural sediments under anoxic as compared to oxic conditions.

Policy and legal systems to protect groundwater.

Implementation of management plans