How does the ART work differ when it is conducted outside the Charleston facility?
Morton: The work conducted outside the facility really is two-fold. First, we travel to the site to examine the local plankton community for the presence of potentially toxic species and examine the shellfish population for the presence of algal toxins. In addition to conducting these field and laboratory experiments, we then help design monitoring strategies and teach local personnel various methods such as plankton collection, identification, and toxin analysis. Are there examples of particularly unusual investigative wildlife work that the ART recently has done? Leighfield: Well, one involves our national bird, the bald eagle. We currently are investigating the hypothesis that an algal toxin may be responsible for bald eagle mortalities. The eagle mortalities are related to a neurological disease called avian vacuolar myelinopathy. It has been observed in duck and birds of prey on southeastern US inland reservoirs. The ART is working with state resource managers to identify potentia
