Ted Smayda in Memoriam
10 April 2017
This year the HAB and research community lost another giant intellect. Professor Theodore J. Smayda, (Ted as he
preferred to be called) passed away after a period of illness. A graduate of the
Braarud School of phytoplankton ecology of Oslo, Norway, Ted held unique
skills and insights into phytoplankton
dynamics including those of HAB species. Author of over 150 peer reviewed
publications and numerous book chapters, he remained a prolific writer and
active researcher until the last days. His
command of the literature in all languages was legendary and his ability
to synthesize information from disparate sources was truly a skill few mastered with his proficiency. His inquisitive mind probed continually for major
principles governing the dynamics of
phytoplankton which were constantly used to stimulate his many students
and colleagues alike. Always willing to
listen, Ted developed ideas, questions
and testable hypotheses with novice
students to well established colleagues
alike. Generous with his thoughts and
ideas, he freely shared these through
his many presentations at meetings,
symposia and invited seminars. Among
his many scientific accomplishments,
Ted took pride in the excellent library
holdings at the GSO Pell Library in
which he personally scoured sources
for pertinent literature. This was in
keeping with an overriding philosophy
of providing an environment where the
mind was the limiting factor and all else
was provided. Another scientific accomplishment he was particularly proud of
was the long term Narragansett Bay
Time Series, a data set beginning in
1959 and continuing weekly into the
late 1990s. These data, obtained for
various stations in Narragansett Bay
but specifically for Station 2 that was
sampled weekly over the entire period, remains one of the most complete
phytoplankton data sets to date. Unlike
other long-term data sets, this was one
conducted on whole water samples, detailed species observations to a significant level and included physical chemi-
HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 57 / 2017
in various environments. This occurred
at a time when skills at the taxonomic
level were disappearing for more convenient but less informative and labor
intensive methods. The foundation of
these insights will provide stimulus for
ideas for many years to come. In a personal vain, Ted was a happy family man,
enormously proud of his children and
their accomplishments and dearly loved
nature including his beloved gardens
and pond environment. His love for languages continued and was reveled in
his private writing of poetry. A mentor,
teacher, perpetual student and lover of
knowledge, Ted will be sorely missed
but deeply remembered through his
enormous legacy of literature, ideas,
and continued stimulus to know more.
His contributions will continue for yet
many years.
Carmelo R. Tomas
University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA
Ted Smayda at the Scientific Symposium on
Harmful Algal Blooms and Climate Change
in Gothenburg, Sweden May 1922, 2015
(Photo Joe Silke)
cal data. The legacy of this data set will
be available to all in the near future. The
data set was also a cohesive element
for his students who all contributed
to its completion and often generated
the hypotheses realized in their thesis
research and subsequent publications.
Analysis of these data resulted in Teds
understanding of the open niches provided for HAB species development,
phytoplankton patterns occurring over
unexpected periods spanning several years and trends significant to understanding effects of climate change.
Teds unique view of looking at HAB
events as Rosetta Stones, giving us insights into functioning of complex marine environments where we have few
tools to dissect their elements arose
from investigating this dataset. He
continuously looked through a microscope, knew the species and was able
to document their changes in time and
Some of Ted key publications
Smayda TJ 2008. Complexity in the
eutrophication-harmful algal bloom
relationship, with comment on the importance of grazing. Harmful Algae 8,
140-151
Smayda TJ & CS Reynolds 2002. Community assembly in marine phytoplankton: application of recent models to
harmful dinoflagellate blooms. J Plankton Res 23: 447-461
Smayda TJ 2002. Turbulence, watermass stratification and harmful algal
blooms: An alternative view. Harmful
Algae 1, 95-112
Smayda TJ 1997. Harmful algal blooms:
their ecophysiology and general relevance to phytoplankton blooms in the
sea. LimnolOceanog. 42: 1137-1153
Smayda, TJ 1990 Novel and nuisance
phytoplankton blooms in the sea: evidence for a global epidemic. In, E.
Granéli, B. Sundström, L. Edler and D.M.
Anderson (eds.) Toxic Marine Phytoplankton. Elsevier, New York, pp 29-40
17
Harmful Algae News An IOC Newsletter on Toxic Algae and Algal Blooms No. 57 - June 2017 www.ioc-unesco.org/hab Unusual fish killing blooms of Tripos furca in Van Phong Bay, South Viet Nam In the beginning of November 2016, a phytoplankton bloom was observed by fisherman in Van Phong Bay, Viet Nam
Fig. 2. Chl-a distribution in coastal waters of Khanh Hoa province during 14th October to 25th November 2016 (sources: MODIS-Aqua Level 2 images, NASA). Clear skies were observed on 14th October, and 11th, 13th, 15th, 22nd, 25th November, while the other days were very cloudy. High chl-a concentrati
vung-sim-2461816/ 3. Nguyen VN et al 2014. In: Kim HG et al (eds) Harmful Algae 2012. Proc15th ICHA (ISSHA) pp 48-51 4. Hodgkiss IJ & Lu S 2004. In: Asian Pacific Phycology in the 21st Century: Prospects and Challenges, pp 215-229 5. Machida M et al 1999. Nippon Suisan Gakk 65: 755756 6. Mat
Mortality of Chilean farmed salmon in wellboats in transit through a Karenia bloom Fig. 1. Geographic distribution of the stations sampled near the Gulf of Penas, Chile, between 31st January and 1st February 2017. A mass mortality of around 170,000 salmon, worth US$ 390,000, was recorded on wellbo
Fig. 3. Density (cells L-1) of Karenia spp. in water samples of the vicinity of the Gulf of Penas. nels, composed mainly of diatoms. Most Karenia (ex Gymnodinum) species produce toxins that can kill fish and other marine organisms when they bloom. In addition to toxicity, some Karenia blooms cause
A bloom of Amphidinium carterae in Ria de Aveiro, Portugal Fig. 1. Ria de Aveiro and oyster farm location. Amphydinium carterae is a benthic unarmored cosmopolitan dinoflagellate classed as a fish killer due to its capacity to produce hemolytic compounds such as amphidinols [1] and polyhydroxyl car
Harmful dinoflagellates in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria, West Africa Fig. 1. Coastal map of Nigeria showing the study area. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are worldwide phenomena [1]. The increasing spread, frequency and severity of harmful algal incidents have been well documented and have led to the
ble are toxic harmful dinoflagellates that produce a suite of toxins, including Alexandrium catenella and Gymnodinium catenatum (saxitoxins), Dinophysis caudata (okadaic acid congeners), and benthic HAB (Ostreopsis cf ovata, palytoxins, and Prorocentrum lima, okadaic acid). These toxins can directly
Satellite detection of Trichodesmium blooms in the Southwestern Pacific and the Tonga trench [2]. This area coincides with high nitrogen fixation rates [3]. There are numerous correlations between the observations of surface mats in the ocean and high reflectance In the oceans, a large portion of t
Fig. 2a) MODIS image of the Trichodesmium bloom with white and green mats between Vanuatu Islands and New Caledonia in December 2014; with Landsat 8 zooms on mats superimposed and the microscopic observation of Trichodesmium colonies in surface samples at the SPOT station visited with R/V Alis; b) P
Plankton Planet in New Zealand Plankton Planet is the first citizen science programme designed for biological oceanography. It is a co-operation between scientists and volunteers from the sailing community based on mass sequencing of DNA barcodes from the extracts of plankton communities collected w
Molluscan Shellfish Safety Conference in Ireland Over 230 international delegates from 27 countries participated in the 11th International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety (ICMSS) from Sunday 14 to Thursday 18 May 2017 at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Convened by Irelands Marin
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the 18th international conference on harmful algae from ecosystems to socio-ecosystems SAVE the date! FATMA GUELLATI/UPMC-UNIV BADJI MOKHTAR Minyvel Environnement/Phenomer Nicolas Chomérat/IFREmer Véronique Séchet/IFREmer Olivier BARBAROUX/IFREmer Stéphane LESBATS/IFREmer Olivier DUG
Ted Smayda in Memoriam 10 April 2017 This year the HAB and research community lost another giant intellect. Professor Theodore J. Smayda, (Ted as he preferred to be called) passed away after a period of illness. A graduate of the Braarud School of phytoplankton ecology of Oslo, Norway, Ted held uniq
IV INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM, June 4-8, Washington DC Organized by ICES, PICES, IOC and NOAA Fisheries The 4th International Symposium will bring together experts from around the world to better understand climate impacts on ocean ecosystems and how to respond. The Symposium will Highlight the latest