Detection and remediation of harmful algal blooms: Opportunities for electrochemists?

Larger and more frequent recurrences of harmful algal blooms (HAB) are becoming an urgent challenge globally with potentially deadly and economically devastating consequences. HAB monitoring and remediation is a multi-disciplinary field which would benefit from inputs from electrochemists. Phytoplankton cells naturally contain various biomarkers such as species-specific DNAs, toxins, and chlorophyll pigments which can be strategically targeted via electrochemistry, either directly or indirectly, for sensing purposes. In this review, we discuss recent electrochemical advances that enable early HAB warning systems with the inclusion of AI to be developed as well as the separation of algae from water via electrocoagulation methods.