Epibenthic Harmful Marine Dinoflagellates from Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), with Special Reference to the Ciguatoxin-Producing Gambierdiscus

Abstract

The relationship between the ciguatoxin-producer benthic dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus and other epibenthic dinoflagellates in the Canary Islands was examined in macrophyte samples obtained from two locations of Fuerteventura Island in September 2016. The genera examined included Coolia, Gambierdiscus, Ostreopsis, Prorocentrum, Scrippsiella, Sinophysis, and Vulcanodinium. Distinct assemblages among these benthic dinoflagellates and preferential macroalgal communities were observed. Vulcanodinium showed the highest cell concentrations (81.6 × 103 cells gr−1 wet weight macrophyte), followed by Ostreopsis (25.2 × 103 cells gr−1 wet weight macrophyte). These two species were most represented at a station (Playitas) characterized by turfy Rhodophytes. In turn, Gambierdiscus (3.8 × 103 cells gr−1 wet weight macrophyte) and Sinophysis (2.6 × 103 cells gr−1 wet weight macrophyte) were mostly found in a second station (Cotillo) dominated by Rhodophytes and Phaeophytes. The influence of macrophyte’s thallus architecture on the abundance of dinoflagellates was observed. Filamentous morphotypes followed by macroalgae arranged in entangled clumps presented more richness of epiphytic dinoflagellates. Morphometric analysis was applied to Gambierdiscus specimens. By large, G. excentricus was the most abundant species and G. australes occupied the second place. The toxigenic potential of some of the genera/species distributed in the benthic habitats of the Canary coasts, together with the already known presence of ciguatera in the region, merits future studies on possible transmission of their toxins in the marine food chain.

Ciguatera in the Indian Ocean with Special Insights on the Arabian Sea and Adjacent Gulf and Seas: A Review

“…Phylogenetic analysis (methodology described in the Supplementary file ) based on multiple alignments (Clustal2.1) of all the available DNA sequences (n = 345) of the D8–D10 region of the large sub unit (LSU) of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) [ 9 , 11 , 14 , 15 , 25 , 26 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 89 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 ] distributes the Gambierdiscus genus into five major clades (clade I–V) as seen in Figure 8 . Clade II and III exclusively contain the species G. australes (Atlantic and Pacific strains) and G. excentricus (Atlantic strains), respectively.…”

The role of habitat in the facilitation of Ostreopsis spp. blooms

“…However, the substrate preferences of Ostreopsis spp. are still ambiguous (Vila et al, 2001;Cohu et al, 2013;Sparrow et al, 2017;Ternon et al, 2020;Tester et al, 2020), although some studies reported larger abundances on some substrates compared to others (Vila et al, 2001(Vila et al, , 2012Mohammad-Noor et al, 2007;Widiarti, 2008;Cabrini et al, 2010;Totti et al, 2010;Accoroni et al, 2011Accoroni et al, , 2012Accoroni and Totti, 2016;Yong et al, 2018;Boisnoir et al, 2019;Bravo et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2020). Such comparisons are tricky because of the limits of cell quantification in function of the type of substrate (i.e.…”

“…In temperate areas canopy-forming algae are lost and replaced by less complex algaedominated communities (Strain et al, 2014;Vergés et al, 2014;Bulleri et al, 2016); several studies relate major densities of Ostreopsis spp. on algal turfs (Bravo et al, 2020) and in particular on highly urbanised coasts that are usually characterized by post-regime shift algal communities (Mangialajo et al, 2008a;Widiarti et al, 2008;Cohu et al, 2013), compared to healthier habitats dominated by forest-forming brown algae (Meroni et al, 2018). In tropical areas, ciguatera fish poisoning episodes recurrently follow disturbances to coral reefs by natural and artificial events such as heat waves, hurricanes, dredging, and shipwrecks, among others, where regime shifts from coral to algae are observed (de Sylva, 1994;Jouffray et al, 2015;Rains and Parsons, 2015;Johns et al, 2018).…”

“…To our best knowledge, only few studies assessed the variability of Ostreopsis spp. at a level higher than the substrate (Cohu et al, 2013;Meroni et al, 2018;Yong et al, 2018;Bravo et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2020) with the aim of comparing different habitats to help understanding Ostreopsis spp. variability.…”

“…cells (including living or dead organisms and abiotic substrates), 2) the mesohabitat, as the community or the abiotic material patch where the substrate is sampled (spatial scale of few to a dozen of m 2 , e.g. the macroalgal turf where a certain macroalgal species is sampled as a substrate or the sandy bottom where a pebble is sampled as a substrate; Meroni et al, 2018;Bravo et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2020), and 3) the macrohabitat, as the ecosystem or the seascape (spatial scales of hundreds/thousands of m 2 ) where the mesohabitat is found (i.e. coral reefs, macroalgaldominated rocky shores; Yong et al, 2018).…”