Minnesota Sea Grant-supported researchers studying harmful algal blooms in the St. Louis River Estuary that separates Minnesota and Wisconsin have made a breakthrough discovery: for the first time, they’ve linked a known cyanotoxin directly to a specific cyanobacteria species, Microcystis aeruginosa, in the Duluth-Superior harbor.
Minnesota Sea Grant-supported researchers studying harmful algal blooms in the St. Louis River Estuary that separates Minnesota and Wisconsin have made a breakthrough discovery: for the first time, they’ve linked a known cyanotoxin directly to a specific cyanobacteria species, Microcystis aeruginosa, in the Duluth-Superior harbor.
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, can produce toxins, called cyanotoxins, which pose significant health risks to humans, pets, livestock and wildlife.
Cody Sheik, a microbial ecologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth, led the research in collaboration with Chris Filstrup, a limnologist at the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute, and Abby Smason, a UMD graduate student researcher and "bloom catcher."
Smason presented a poster, "A Metagenomic Approach to Tracking Lake Superior's Cyanobacterial Blooms,” about the project at the 2025 International Association for Great Lakes Research conference June 2-6, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sheik and Filstrup also attended the conference.
Read more at University of Minnesota Duluth
