Edson Silva has been working towards obtaining his doctorate for the past three years, as part of the Climate Dynamics and Prediction Group at the Nansen Center. Today his degree is being awarded by the University of Bergen. Congratulations, Dr. Silva!
Algae are a crucial component in the marine ecosystem, but they can also harm it. Some microscopic algae can produce toxins which can be filtered by shellfish and reach high concentration levels. So, when humans consume those shellfish, they can get poisoned. Monitoring in shellfish farms makes it possible to avoid consumption of contaminated shellfish, but the economic loss can be significant as selling contaminated shellfish is banned. Being able to predict when toxic algae abundance rises to dangerous levels, so called “harmful algae bloom” (HAB), can help farmers to plan mitigation and refine the monitoring program to more accurately detect when and where a HAB can occur. This is the purpose of Silva’s PhD. He set out to develop methods for predicting HABs impacting shellfish farms in Norway.
Silva used machine learning techniques fed with environmental data from satellites and model reanalysis, as well as observations of toxic algae in shellfish farms (provided by the national monitoring program) to find out what the typical environmental conditions favourable for HABs are.
The models he developed can accurately predict the likelihood of the occurrence of HAB species monitored on the Norwegian shelf. This can help to better plan locations of future farms to minimize loss, and to help improve the national HAB monitoring to refine measurements at times when they are most needed. Moreover, the models make it possible to be warned about the amounts of toxic algae from one up to four weeks ahead of time at specific aquaculture location. This can give shellfish farmers enough time to react and to prevent economic loss.
Silva focused his efforts on predicting algae blooms on the Norwegian shelf, but the models can be adjusted to be useful for any other location on Earth, making them a very useful tool to mitigate the damage HABs can cause. If you want to hear more about this new tool, you can listen to the episode of the Bjerknes Climate Podcast featuring Edson Silva here.
Silva has obtained a bachelor’s degree in oceanography at the Federal University of Paraná and a master’s degree in remote sensing at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil. He started his PhD in 2020, as a research fellow at the Nansen Center and a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen.
