Leveraging standardized ‘omics datasets from The Great Lakes Atlas of Multi-omics Research (GLAMR) for harmful algal blooms monitoring and forecasting

Lake Erie, the shallowest and warmest of the Laurentian Great Lakes, experiences annual Microcystis-dominated harmful algal blooms. These blooms vary in timing, extent, and toxicity. Omics approaches have improved our understanding of bloom biology, and also serve as a powerful monitoring tool. However, omics datasets are often produced to serve the needs of individual studies and typically do not have the spatial or temporal coverage to adequately capture changes in lake biology, or facilitate modeling work. To this end we built the Great Lakes Atlas of Multi-omics Research (GLAMR), which aims to unite and standardize all Great Lakes omics datasets and associated metadata. While existing bloom models based on nutrient loading, weather, satellite imagery, and hydrodynamic models are reasonably able to forecast bloom extent, location, and seasonal severity, predicting production of the toxin microcystin has remained elusive. In this work, we leveraged omics datasets and paired water quality measurements from public omic datasets and long-term monitoring efforts to train and evaluate models of toxin production, highlighting the utility of ‘omics data standardization and re-use.

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: Erik Kiledal, University of Michigan (kiledal@umich.edu)

Authors:

Anders Kiledal, University of Michigan  (kiledal@umich.edu)

Greg Dick, University of Michigan  (gdick@umich.edu)

Robert Hein, University of Michigan  (heinro@umich.edu)

Vincent Denef, University of Michigan  (vdenef@umich.edu)

Melissa Duhaime, University of Michigan  (duhaimem@umich.edu)

Subba Rao Chaganti, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research  (chaganti@umich.edu)

Reagan Errera, NOAA GLERL  (Reagan.Errera@noaa.gov)

Casey Godwin, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research  (cgodwin@umich.edu)

Ryan Newton, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee  (newtonr@uwm.edu)

Cody Sheik, University of Minnesota Duluth  (cssheik@d.umn.edu)

Daniel Heath, University of Windsor  (dheath@uwindsor.ca)

Henry Vanderploeg, NOAA GLERL  (henry.vanderploeg@noaa.gov)