All hands on deck: Collaboration and innovation for coastal harmful algal blooms

With 15% of the global population now living within 10km of a coastline, coastal harmful algal blooms (HABs) are becoming an increasingly significant and complex challenge in many regions of the world. The causes and consequences of HABs are multiple and interconnected, implicating governments, industry, communities and researchers. As a result, improving outcomes requires moving beyond traditional disciplinary or sectoral boundaries. There is a growing need to integrate advances in protistology with emerging technologies, environmental observations, cultural knowledge, and expertise from diverse disciplines and stakeholder groups. This Research Topic therefore focuses on collaborative and innovative approaches to understanding coastal HABs and mitigating their impacts.This Research Topic aims to explore and strengthen the HAB innovation ecosystem by connecting scientific discovery, practical action and community expertise. We seek to highlight how collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and knowledge systems can accelerate research, spark innovation, and improve society's ability to anticipate, manage, and adapt to harmful algal bloom events.We are interested in submissions whose findings depend on collaborative research, and/or which describe innovative partnerships around understanding or addressing coastal HABs. This may include partnerships among protistologists, ecologists, oceanographers, engineers, data scientists, public health practitioners, artists, economists, social scientists, Indigenous communities, industry stakeholders, and/or decision-makers.By bringing together diverse perspectives and methodologies, this collection seeks to advance a systems-level understanding of HABs while fostering innovation in monitoring, prediction, communication, and response. Ultimately, the goal is to strengthen the scientific and societal foundations and networks needed to navigate an increasingly uncertain future for coastal environments.We welcome contributions that advance our understanding of, and responses to, coastal harmful algal blooms while demonstrating the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. We welcome contributions spanning fundamental and applied research, including advances in protist biology and ecology, environmental monitoring, modelling, artificial intelligence, autonomous observing systems, and digital technologies. We also encourage submissions exploring governance, community engagement, co-design, policy development, public health preparedness, and industry collaboration, particularly where these contribute to practical solutions for HAB preparedness and response. By bringing diverse expertise, methodologies, and perspectives into conversation with each other, this collection aims to strengthen connections between science, policy, industry, and society. The resulting body of work will help advance an integrated understanding of HABs, and foster ongoing collaboration around coastal disasters that occur when plant-like protists grow out of control. Topic editors: Amy K. McLennan, Jacqueline H Stephens, Anastasiia Snigirova Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85544/all-hands-on-deck-collaboration-and-innovation-for-coastal-harmful-algal-blooms