Heterosigma HAB Lab Toxicity Part 1 - Brine Shrimp Assay

It may look like it, but this is not space, and those are not stars. They are Heterosigma, a harmful phytoplankton species responsible for killing over a million farmed fish in the past 20 years, and an indeterminate number of wild fish. At the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs, a team of scientists from the institutions shown here have set up a Harmful Algal Bloom Laboratory (or HAB Lab for short), to research growth and toxic mechanisms in these raphidophytes. Here, grad student Brian Sutton-Quaid, under the supervision of Dr. Charlie Trick, is running a test to determine the toxicity of Heterosigma we have collected and grown in a culture.

This assay uses brine shrimp, commonly known to you and me as Sea Monkeys. First, Brian hatches these shrimp in a bubbler, then, places a set number in each well of these plates. Some rows are controls and some rows contain a known amount of Heterosigma. After letting them sit, Brian observes the brine shrimp under a dissecting microscope. These brine shrimp are one of the controls, and are mostly happy and healthy. This is a well containing Heterosigma, and as you can see, the shrimp are having a more difficult time swimming through the water, and are labeled "impaired".

These data, as always, are recorded in a science notebook, with three columns: Alive, Impaired, and Dead. They're then analyzed to determine the toxicity of the Heterosigma.

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Science & Technology

Tags:

• Heterosigma
• HAB
• Lab
• Friday
• Harbor
• Puget
• Sound
• Brine
• Shrimp
• Sea
• Monkeys
• Fish
• KIlls
• Salmon
• Pacific
• Northwest
• phytoplankton
• environment