The article used molecular tools to sequence the genome of the cyanobacterium, Dolichospermum lemmermannii, that has caused blooms from Duluth to the Apostle Islands in recent years. Sheik said, “Using genome-based tools has given us a glimpse of how this organism thrives in Lake Superior waters, and has given us a base to extend our work and think about the ecology of this organism and why it is blooming.”
Sheik is from the UMD Biology Department and Large Lakes Observatory and led the multi-discipline manuscript that brought other UMD co-authors together. Other Large Lakes Observatory collaborators include, Dr. Kathryn Schreiner from the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department, Dr. Byron Steinman from the Earth & Environmental Sciences Department, and graduate students Kaela Natwora and Jake Callaghan. Dr. Chris Filstrup and Dr. Andrew Bramburger (now at Environment Canada) and Elizabeth Alexson from the Natural Resources Research Institute were co-authors along with other contributors.
The article is titled, “Dolichospermum blooms in Lake Superior: DNA-based approach provides insight to the past, present and future of blooms” and was published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research in 2022 (48(5): 1191-1205).