A Saint Joseph's College marine science professor, Gregory Teegarden of Pownal, has been awarded $90,000 in research funding as part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration grant to study red tide in the Gulf of Maine, the college announced today.

Teegarden and colleagues at the University of Maine and Bowdoin College have been working toward an early warning system for red tide, which is caused by a toxic algae that contaminates shellfish populations and causes fishery closures and economic hardship.

The team uses a remote sensing buoy placed near shore to measure ocean currents, visibility, algae pigments, temperature and light at various depths. The team of scientists, along with students, are studying correlations between patterns in the readings and the onsets of red tide.

Teegarden's research last spring led him to question whether the fresh water from last winter's melting snow caused an unusual pattern in red tides. This fall, Teegarden launched a Casco Bay plankton identification Web site, at sigma.sjcme.edu/cascobaystudy