The NOAA-funded MOCHA (Monitoring Oregon’s Coastal Harmful Algae) team, that includes IE2 member Michelle Wood as a co-PI, has found that high levels of the neurotoxin domoic acid (DA) in shellfish on the U.S. west coast are linked to warm conditions of  major climate cycles like the El Niño Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a twenty year time series of data on DA in shellfish was used to support the conclusion and validate a risk assessment model that can be used to determine likelihood of blooms of DA producing phytoplankton.  Read more in this article from “Around the O”.