Get your questions about cyanobacteria and health answered by an expert in coastal pond health and harmful algal blooms. Dr. Christopher Gobler and his team at the Gobler Laboratory study, monitor, and communicate about the health of 30+ Long Island coastal ponds. Many of these brackish (salt + fresh) ecosystems are analagous to our southshore Vineyard ponds, located along a barrier beach which is manually breached to allow ocean flushing.

Dr. Gobler conducts research on plankton ecology, with a broad focus on the factors that promote phytoplankton growth (organic and inorganic nutrients), as well as factors that are responsible for algal mortality (zooplankton, viruses, filter-feeding bivalves) in diverse aquatic ecosystems. A primary focus of the lab within the field of plankton ecology has been the study of harmful algal blooms (HABs).