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Paper short abstract

Algal blooms are a normal feature in any water body, with key ecological contributions to e.g. carbon cycling and the trophic web. Our presentation explores how different societal actors strive to know blooming cycles and explores the development of new sensory methods that attend to such dynamics.

Paper long abstract

The blooming of microalgae is a normal feature of both marine and freshwater ecosystems. The notion of algal blooms includes a variety of organisms, principally grouped into three categories: diatoms, dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria. All play key ecological roles, for example, carbon cycling or the trophic web. Because different species bloom at different times of the year, various actors become involved in sampling, recording, and monitoring the changing conditions of aquatic ecosystems.

In the Nordic regions, marine biologists researching carbon dynamics often focus on the spring bloom, which is typically dominated by diatoms. While environmental research institutes tend to adopt a broader perspective aimed at understanding changes in water composition, public health authorities and citizens are especially attentive to the toxic potential of summer cyanobacterial blooms.

In our research, we aim to make sense of these diverse attempts to produce knowledge about algal presence. This involves approaching relevant societal actors through traditional methods such as ethnography, while also developing our own capacity as researchers to know watery environments through sensory engagement in Finland’s coastal and lake regions. This experimental approach allows us to test and develop new methods capable to yield data that goes beyond traditional textual dominance of the social sciences, producing what Philip Steinberg and Kimberly Peters call wet ontologies.

Our findings show that algal blooms – especially when perceived as harmful – alter human perceptions of aquatic ecologies and everyday life around water bodies, leading to changes in knowledge practices towards water bodies among diverse communities and stakeholders.