Dinoflagellates in marine benthic habitats living epiphytically on macroalgae are an important but highly understudied group of protists. Many produce toxins that can have severe economic impacts on marine-based economies, and improved monitoring tools are required to enhance the management of toxin-related hazards. We analysed the distribution and diversity of epibenthic dinoflagellates inhabi...

A major impediment to understanding the seemingly random occurrence of ciguatera toxicity is uncertainty regarding the field ecology of benthic dinoflagellates that introduce toxins into the coral reef food web. Although broad generalizations have been made, past studies have often yielded contradictory results, particularly between ecological patterns documented in the Pacific versus the Carib...

The dinoflagellate cyst records in sediments from New Bedford Harbor and Apponagansett Bay demonstrate sensitivity to environmental change caused by human activity in the watersheds over the last 500 years. Changes in the species richness, as well as absolute and relative abundance of dinoflagellate cyst taxa reflect recent periods of development around the estuaries. Cyst taxa sensitive to the...

Dinophysis acuminata cells were isolated from Narragansett Bay water samples in June 2005 using flow cytometry. Dinoflagellate-specific PCR primers were used to isolate small-subunit rRNA (18S rRNA), mitochondrial cytochrome b (cob), and cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) genes and the encoded cDNAs. Maximum-likelihood analysis of a concatenated data set of ribosomal DNA and cDNA sequences of cob an...

Citation: Wasmund N (2017) The Diatom/Dinoflagellate Index as an Indicator of Ecosystem Changes in the Baltic Sea. 2. Historical Data for Use in Determination of Good Environmental Status. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:153. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00153 The Diatom/Dinoflagellate Index as an Indicator of Ecosystem Changes in the Baltic Sea. 2. Historical Data for Use in Determination of Good Environmental ...