This study involves a phytoplankton summer/autumn survey in 46 Virginia lakes and reservoirs during 2010-2012. A total of 307 taxa were identified which included several filamentous and colonial cyanabacteria in bloom concentrations.With the exception of one natural lake, the other sites sampled represent impoundments created decades ago, with the majority presently classified as mesoor eutroph...

Alexandrium tamarense is a notorious bloom-forming dinoflagellate, which adversely impacts water quality and human health. In this study we present a new algicide against A. tamarense, which was isolated from the marine bacterium Vibrio sp. BS02. MALDI-TOF-MS, NMR and algicidal activity analysis reveal that this compound corresponds to palmitoleic acid, which shows algicidal activity against A....

Toxic spills, hypoxia, disease outbreaks and toxin-producing algal blooms are all possible causes of mass mortality events, but in many cases it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of death. Here we present a new approach that we name 'forensic genomics', combining field surveys, toxin testing and genomic scans. Forensic genomics queries allele frequencies of surviving animals for signatures...

Phytoplankton blooms are a worldwide problem and can greatly affect ecological processes in aquatic systems, but its impacts on the functional potential of microbial communities are limited. In this study, a high-throughput microarray-based technology (GeoChip) was used to profile the functional potential of free-living microbes from the Xiamen Sea Area in response to a 2011 Akashiwo sanguinea ...

Many species of harmful algae transition between a motile, vegetative stage in the water column and a non-motile, resting stage in the sediments. Physiological and behavioral traits expressed during benthic-pelagic transition potentially regulate the timing, location and persistence of blooms. The roles of key physiological and behavioral traits involved in resting cell emergence and bloom form...

The dynamics of O2 depletion in exceptional dinoflagellate blooms, often referred to as red tides or harmful algal blooms (HABs), was investigated in St. Helena Bay in the southern Benguela upwelling system in 2013. The transition to bloom decay and anoxia was examined through determination of O2-based productivity and respiration rates. Changes in O2 concentrations in relation to bloom metabol...

The operational service for algal bloom monitoring at NERSC is primarily based on NOAA AVHRR and SeaWiFS optical data. The service has shown very useful in several occasions since 1998 while severe and harmful blooms of the algae Chattonella sp. were reported from the North Sea off the coast of Denmark. Early detection and mapping of the extent and concentrations of the blooms were achieved. Ho...

To analyze the interrelated dynamics of microalgae and algicidal bacteria (i.e. bacteria that kill and utilize microalgal cells) in a seawater environment, we investigated particle-associated and free-living algicidal bacteria during a diatom bloom in the Seto Inland Sea (Japan) in the summer of 2005. A conventional most probable number (MPN) protocol revealed that bacteria that are algicidal a...

Phytoplankton is known to be a key element in the production and eventual oceanic effiux of dimethyl suffide (DMS) to the atmosphere. We hypothesized that the alternation of Phaeocystis pouchetii and diatoms, the two major algal components of the spring bloom, would modulate the input of partictfiate organic sulfur (POS), dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), and DMS into the mixed layer of the ma...

Sentinel species such as bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) can be impacted by large-scale mortality events due to exposure to marine algal toxins. In the Sarasota Bay region (Gulf of Mexico, Florida, USA), the bottlenose dolphin population is frequently exposed to harmful algal blooms (HABs) of Karenia brevis and the neurotoxic brevetoxins (PbTx; BTX) produced by this dinoflagellate. Liv...