ARC Linkage success for NHASP researchers

Nuisance and Harmful Algae Science-Practice Partnership (NHASP) researchers Brett Neilan, Aaron Jex and Nicholas Crosbie have been awarded a grant by the Australian Research Council to mitigate the risk of cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater ponds, in collaboration with Melbourne Water and Anas Ghadouani from the University of Western Australia.

Cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater treatment plants impact on effluent quality and the utility of recycled water, posing a significant risk to the economy, the environment and public health.

To understand the causes of cyanobacterial blooms in pond-based wastewater treatment plants and the risk they pose, the $891,000 grant will enable researchers to use the latest molecular techniques to examine how the microbial communities within these systems interact with each other and their surrounding environment to form blooms and produce toxins and other harmful metabolites.

Such knowledge will inform risk assessment and provide strategies for the mitigation of future bloom events, improving the security of our increasingly valuable recycled water resources.