Susan Badylak

• Master of Science
• Researcher at University of Florida

Introduction Cultural eutrophication threatens numerous ecological and economical resources of Florida’s coastal ecosystems, such as beaches, mangroves, and seagrasses. In April 2021, an infrastructure failure at the retired Piney Point phosphorus mining retention reservoir garnered national attention, as 814 million liters of nutrient rich water w...

Seasonal patterns of phytoplankton biomass and composition in the inner continental shelf off Cape Canaveral on the east coast of Florida were examined for a 6-year period (2013–2019). In situ water samples were collected and analyzed for chlorophyll a, phytoplankton biomass and composition, along with water quality parameters. Regional satellite d...

Flow-regulated discharges of water from control structures into estuaries result in hydrologic and water chemistry conditions that impact spatial and temporal variability in the structure and biomass of phytoplankton communities, including the potential for harmful algal blooms (HABs). The relationships between regulated Caloosahatchee River (i.e.,...

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL), located on the east coast of Florida, is a complex estuarine ecosystem that is negatively affected by recurring harmful algal blooms (HABs) from distinct taxonomic/functional groups. Enhanced monitoring was established to facilitate rapid quantification of three recurrent bloom taxa, Aureoumbra lagunensis, Pyrodinium...

This paper examines the character of phytoplankton blooms in a restricted sub-tropical lagoon along the Atlantic coast of central Florida. The results of the 23-year study (1997–2020) provide evidence for multiple types of variability in bloom activity, including cyclical patterns, stochastic events, and most prominently a regime shift in compositi...

Within the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), blooms of the marine microalga Aureoumbra lagunensis in excess of 1310 6 cells ml À1 have occurred on three occasions after first being locally identified in 2012. All blooms coincided with times of peak reproduction and growth of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica in Mosquito Lagoon (northern IRL). Over...

In 2018, the presence of bottom water hypoxia along the SW Florida coast was investigated during a bloom of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. The bloom was first detected in November 2017. Monitoring of oxygen levels and bloom densities were carried out in 2018 and 2019 using sampling grids. Vertical profiles indicated a pycnocline at 3–4 m...

A microscopic study of microplankton in two coastal lagoons in the Florida Keys coincidently, and unexpectedly, revealed the widespread presence of high concentrations of polystyrene microplastic particles. The polystyrene particles were first observed in the second year of a 2-year study of phytoplankton communities, with peak densities in the spr...

The abundance and composition of the phytoplankton community off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida was examined from Fall 2013 to Summer 2015. The region is a shallow shelf environment. Water samples were collected quarterly at 24 sites from the surface and bottom of the water column; temperature and nutrient concentrations were determined. Phot...

Future increases in the intensity of hurricanes and El Niño periods predicted by climate change models have focused attention on their role in stimulating harmful algal blooms (HABs). A series of hurricanes that recently impacted Florida (USA) provided a unique opportunity to explore the relationships between hurricanes, El Niño and HABs in two Flo...

The genome sequence of a newly isolated cyanobacterium, Cyanothece sp. BG0011 was determined and its phylogenetic relationship to other cyanobacterial taxa described. Growth responses of BG0011 to a range of selected environmental factors were determined, including temperature, salinity, nitrogen sources and natural outdoor culture conditions. The...

This study reports on the harmful algal bloom (HAB) dinoflagellate Akashiwo sanguinea in the upper, mid and lower Caloosahatchee estuary, Florida during monthly sample events at four sites from February 2009 through February 2010. Akashiwo sanguinea cells were microscopically quantified throughout the course of the study and scanning electron micro...

Concerns about global climate change have heightened awareness of the role changing rainfall regimes play in altering plankton communities of coastal ecosystems. In this study spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton composition and biomass in a sub-tropical tidal creek in Florida were observed over three wet and dry seasons, which included t...

Urban and agricultural development around the Caloosahatchee Estuary on the southwest coast of Florida (USA) has altered the flow and quality of water in the system since the late 1800s. Increasing algal blooms have highlighted these changes and their influence on phytoplankton production. Our primary objectives were to (1) measure phytoplankton pr...

Akashiwo sanguinea is a cosmopolitan dinoflagellate that has been observed to form major blooms in coastal ecosystems around the world. A. sanguinea plays a major role in the ecology of many marine environments, including coastal ecosystems with variable salinities, where its euryhaline character makes it competitive. The study involved monthly wat...

Relationships between shifts in climatic and other environmental conditions and changes in the character and dynamics of phytoplankton blooms were examined in three interconnected subtropical lagoons on the east coast of Florida, i.e., Mosquito Lagoon, Indian River Lagoon, and Banana River Lagoon, from 1997 to 2013. Phytoplankton blooms were a comm...

Note Copyright © 2014 The Korean Society of Phycology 197 http://e-algae.kr pISSN: This is the first recorded observation of Akashiwo sanguinea excreting mucilaginous substances from pores on the cell surface. Observations were from samples collected in the Caloosahatchee Estuary, Florida, USA during a bloom event, with densities of 672 cells mL -1...

We analyzed spatial and temporal patterns and relationships in water quality in order to investigate causes and short-term consequences of a historically unprecedented phytoplankton bloom that afflicted the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) system during 2011. The 2011 ‘superbloom’ was unprecedented, not only for its magnitude (chlorophyll_a concentrations...

The St. Lucie Estuary, located on the southeast coast of Florida, provides an example of a subtropical ecosystem where seasonal changes in temperature are modest, but summer storms alter rainfall regimes and external inputs to the estuary from the watershed and Atlantic Ocean. The focus of this study was the response of the phytoplankton community...

This paper describes the results of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring effort in the Indian River Lagoon. The goal of the study was to describe spatial and temporal variability in the distribution, frequency of occurrence, and composition of HABs, along with an examination of potential driving factors, such as hydrologic conditions and nutrient...

This paper describes the results of 10years of water quality monitoring in the Indian River Lagoon Florida, with special emphasis on the relationships between trends in climatic conditions and the distribution, composition, and abundance of the phytoplankton community. The Indian River Lagoon, which spans 220km of Florida’s east coast, is a region...

This study describes spatial and temporal distributions of the zooplankton community in Tampa Bay, including their distributions during a bloom of the toxic dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense. Three sites in the bay were sampled 30 times from April 2002 to April 2003. Abundances of holoplankton (copepod nauplii included), meroplankton and microzoo...

The toxin cylindrospermopsin (CYN) is produced by a variety of cyanobacterial genera. One of these, Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, is generally assumed to be the source of CYN in lakes and rivers in Florida, USA. However, in this study, none of the eight Florida isolates of this species tested contained the genetic determinants involved in toxin p...

Phytoplankton was observed from April 2002 to April 2003 in Tampa Bay to determine spatial and temporal patterns of composition and abundance. Picoplankton cyanobacteria were numerically dominant at all sites within the bay, but due to their small size were infrequently dominant in terms of biomass (i.e., biovolume). The small-celled diatoms Skelet...

Recent reclassification of Pseudo-nitzschia pseudodelicatissima and Pseudo-nitzschia cuspidata prompted a reexamination of the P. pseudodelicatissima designation assigned to recently observed blooms in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) in Florida. Light microscopy, SEM and TEM were used to study morphological features of Pseudo-nitzschia from the IRL a...

Over the last half of the 20th century Pyrodinium bahamense var. bahamense has been observed in a variety of locations in the western North Atlantic. Recent evidence of the toxin- producing capacity of this variety of P. bahamense has heightened interest in its habitat requirements and preferences. The objective of this study was to examine the env...

S. BADYLAK ,K. K ELLEY AND E.J. PHLIPS. 2004. A description of Pyrodinium bahamense (Dinophyceae) from the Indian River Lagoon, Florida, USA. Phycologia 43: 000-000. The primary focus of this paper is to provide a detailed description of Pyrodinium bahamensefrom the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. Recent reports of saxitoxin production by P. bahamens...

A 2 year study of the phytoplankton community was carried out in the Indian River Lagoon, USA. In terms of biovolume, the phytoplankton community was generally dominated by dinoflagellates, diatoms or cyanobacteria. Mean phytoplankton standing crops were highest in the most flow-restricted regions of the lagoon, which had the lowest mean salinity v...

The lagoons that border the east coast of the Florida peninsula provide an opportunity to study water chemistry and phytoplankton characteristics over a wide range of water residence and nutrient load conditions. This article includes the results of a 2-year study of eight study sites. The northern half of the sampling range included four sampling...

The occurrence of potentially toxic phytoplankton species was examined over a 5-year period in a region of the Indian River Lagoon in Florida that has recently been subject to ecologically significant events, putatively related to algal toxins. The results of the study reveal a significant presence of two species of phytoplankton that have been sho...

Phytoplankton dynamics in the Indian River Lagoon was examined from the point of view of several key controlling factors, including: nutrient limitation, light availability, temperature, wind, hydrodynamic restriction and grazing. Water was collected at eight sampling sites in the lagoon on a monthly basis for a two and a half year period. Samples...

Seventeen sites in Florida Bay were sampled on a monthly basis for 51 months to describe the spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton blooms. The study focused on the picoplanktonic cyanobacterium Synechococcus. The greatest frequency and intensity of blooms was observed in the north-central region of Florida Bay, where cellular biovolumes of...

The role of light and nutrient availability in controlling the abundance and structure of phytoplankton populations was studied in Lake Okeechobee, a large eutrophic lake in south Florida, USA. Measurements of selected environmental parameters at sampling sites within four ecologically distinct regions of the lake were combined with direct experime...

Spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton standing crop and composition in Florida Bay were studied for a 6-month period. Significant spatial differences were observed supporting the hypothesis that the bay is composed of a number of ecologically distinct regions. The highest standing crops of planktonic algae and cyanobacteria were found in t...

Spatial and temporal variability of light attenuation within Florida Bay, USA was examined at 17 stations over a 1 yr period, with emphasis on the relative roles of algal and non-algal factors in the absorption of light in the water column. Four distinct regions in the bay were identified based on differences in the relationships between Light exti...