Swedish researchers study effects of toxic algae along the Indian west coast

For the past 16 years, Dr. Anna Godhe at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, has been involved in a long-standing and fruitful research collaboration with the Karnataka Animal Veterinary and Fisheries Science University in Mangalore on the Indian west coast,focusing on Toxic algae, their ecology, and about methods to develop identification and detection of these algae, along the south-west coast of India. 

Dr. Ann-Sofi Rehnstam-Holm, School of Education and Environment, Kristianstad University, has been Anna’s main Swedish partner in the India projects.
Currently, a project funded by Swedish Research Links and SIDA-Formas, is running with several other Swedish and Indian partners. The project is entitled ”Climate induced changes in phytoplankton community structure: The role of harmful algal species in the Arabian Sea”, and aims to understand how climate-induced changes in sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, pH, and sources of macronutrients may affect the phytoplankton community structure, and to identify environmental drivers of harmful algal bloom (HAB) species. Such knowledge will enable us to foresee effects in the marine food web affecting e.g. fisheries, and assess the risks HABs pose to human health under present and future environmental conditions. 
The project will be further strengthened during 2012, since the Gothenburg Centre for Marine Research, a multidisciplinary research centre at University of Gothenburg established in 2011, has granted funds for providing two PhD projects within the India project. One of the PhD candidates, still to be selected, will be supervised by Anna Godhe and deal with climate changes in the pelagial (bacteria and algae) in the Arabian Sea. The second PhD candidate will be supervised by Dr. Per Knutsson, School of Global Studies, and focus on societal changes taking place along the Indian west coast due to effects of the blooming of toxic algae and bacteria in the sea.
More information about the project.