Evaluation of marine phytoplankton toxicity by application of marine invertebrate bioassays

Abstract

Summary:The dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum and the haptophyte Prymnesium parvum are well known for their toxin production and negative effects in marine coastal environments. A. minutum produces toxins which cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans and can affect copepods, shellfish and other marine organisms. Toxins of P. parvum are associated with massive fish mortalities resulting in negative impacts on the marine ecosystem and large economic losses in commercial aquaculture. The aim of this work is to improve our knowledge about the reliability of the use of marine invertebrate bioassays to detect microalgae toxicity, by performing: (i) a 24-to 48-h test with the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana; (ii) a 48-hour embryo-larval toxicity test with the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus; and (iii) a 72-h test with the amphipod Corophium multisetosum. The results indicate that A. franciscana and P. lividus larvae are sensitive to the toxicity of A. minutum and P. parvum. LC 50 comparison analysis between the tested organisms reveals that A. franciscana is the most sensitive organism for A. minutum. These findings suggest that the use of different organizational biological level bioassays appears to be a suitable tool for A. minutum and P. parvum toxicity assessment.Keywords: Alexandrium minutum; Prymnesium parvum; Paracentrotus lividus; Artemia franciscana; Corophium multisetosum; toxicity bioassays. Evaluación de la toxicidad de fitoplancton marino mediante la aplicación de bioensayos con invertebrados marinosResumen: Las microalgas Alexandrium minutum y Prymnesium parvum son bien conocidas por la producción de toxinas y sus efectos negativos en nuestras costas. A. minutum produce la toxina PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) que afecta a humanos y una gran variedad de organismos marinos como copépodos y marisco. Las toxinas de P. parvum producen grandes mortalidades de peces ocasionando graves impactos negativos en el ecosistema marino e importantes pérdidas económicas en acuicultura. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo mejorar el conocimiento del uso de bioensayos con invertebrados marinos en la detección de la toxicidad de microalgas, mediante: (i) un test de 24-48 horas con Artemia franciscana; (ii) un test de 48 horas con embriones y larvas del erizo de mar Paracentrotus lividus; y (iii) un test de 72 horas con el anfípodo Corophium multisetosum. Los resultados muestran que las larvas de A. franciscana y P. lividus son sensibles a la toxicidad de A. minutum y P. parvum. Los análisis LC 50 revelan que A. franciscana es el organismo más sensible a A. minutum. Estos resultados indican que los bioensayos con diferentes niveles de organización biológica parecen ser una herramienta apropiada para la evaluación de la toxicidad de A. minutum y P. parvum.

Dinoflagellate fossils: Geological and biological applications

“…A. minutum is one of the major toxin producers leading to the toxification of shellfish resources making their consumption dangerous. It is a widely distributed, coastal species that has been associated with paralytic toxins like saxitoxins (Taylor et al, 1995;Landsberg, 2002;Aylagas et al, 2014). Thanks to a multi-proxy approach combining paleogenetic and palynological (dinocysts and pollen grains) carried out at a very high (annual) resolution (Lambert et al, 2018), increasing abundances of A. minutum since the 1980s has been associated to a warming climate trend superimposed on changes in Bay of Brest agriculture practices in watersheds (Figure 8).…”

The Use of Cryopreserved Biological Material for Water Quality Assessment

“…A great number of response variables can be measured at different levels of biological organization and at different trophic levels in order to determine the GES of the marine environment (e.g., Lyons et al, 2010;Davies and Vethaak, 2012). A wide range of organisms have been considered for marine pollution monitoring, including microorganisms like marine bacteria (Gellert, 2000;Parvez et al, 2006), microalgae (Debelius et al, 2009;Aylagas et al, 2014;Araujo and Moreno-Garrido, 2015), marine invertebrates (Snell and Persoone, 1989;His et al, 1999a;Bellas et al, 2005;Bellas, 2008;Laranjeiro et al, 2015;Perez Fernández et al, 2015) or fish (Hutchinson et al, 1994;EPA, 2002), in all these examples the endpoints are either hatching, growth or normal development along time.…”