INCREASING DIVERSITY IN THE GEOSCIENCES THROUGH COMMUNITY PROJECTS: HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

The geosciences are one of the least diverse of all the science and technology disciplines. Many agencies and university programs are trying to address this problem through scholarships and recruitment. These programs are helpful, but another avenue that would help recruiting is to conduct more earth and environmental studies in under-represented communities. Going into these communities would make people aware of the value and importance of geoscientists, as well as potential environmental hazards that could be affecting their community. One example of this is developing a program that would support studying harmful algal blooms (HABs) in urban environments. In a literature survey, we found numerous national, regional, and state programs that targeted HABs in rural and suburban waterways and only 1 that targeted urban waterbodies. More often than not, the urban water was not monitored, but was under the constant general assumption of being unclean water. The objective of those large monitoring programs was to determine the occurrence and distribution of HABs on large scales. That is a worthy goal, but preselects for non-urban lakes and ponds. Tennessee State University (TSU), in partnership with Tom Byl, US Geological Survey, is conducting a preliminary study of HABs urban ponds in Nashville, TN. We found high concentrations of microcystin (greater than 5 micrograms per liter) in wetlands draining a historically black neighborhood. After finding this, we are conducting more monitoring in more urban lakes and streams in minority neighborhoods of Nashville. Part of our motivation was based on the fact that neighborhood youth play and consume fish from these waters. We also felt it was an excellent opportunity to connect with under-represented communities and talk with them about water quality issues in their neighborhood, as well as the broad concept of geoscience. TSU is uniquely qualified for this outreach and HAB study as an urban Historically Black College University. We have reached out to Metro parks to collaborate on warnings and permits to sample their ponds.