Temporal and Spatial Distribution of the Toxic Epiphytic Dinoflagellate Ostreopsis cf. ovata in the Coastal Waters off Jeju Island, Korea

Abstract

The temporal and spatial distribution of the toxic epiphytic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis cf. ovata was investigated off the Jeju coastal waters, Korea, from July 2016 to January 2019. The results showed that the presence of Ostreopsis cf. ovata in 184 macroalgae was 79.3%, and it was more frequently attached to red algae and brown algae than to green algae. The abundance of Ostreopsis cf. ovata as determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) and microscopic analysis was 4–3204 cells g−1, and the maximum abundance observed in September 2018, when the water temperature was 24.4 °C. The abundance was higher in summer and autumn than in spring and winter. Spatially, high abundance was observed in autumn on the northern coast of Jeju Island and, in summer, in the southern and eastern coastal waters. The water temperature of Jeju coastal waters in winter remained higher than 15 °C, and this species could be overwintering in the Jeju waters. Therefore, further monitoring and research are needed to evaluate the proliferation of Ostreopsis cf. ovata, which contains a novel toxin with unidentified effects on humans.

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

“…However, choosing macroalgae over corals as substrate to be sampled could be for ethical reasons (coral species may be protected under international or national environmental law) or other practicalities of the sampling. Concerning the different species, Park et al (2020) report higher Ostreopsis spp. abundances on red (Spyridia filamentosa and Laurencia complex) and brown macroalgae (i.e.…”

Detection of the Benthic Dinoflagellates, Ostreopsis cf. ovata and Amphidinium massartii (Dinophyceae), Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification

“…The eluted genomic DNA was diluted to the equivalent of 1000, 300, 100, 30, and 10 cells. In the application of the field samples, the relatively quantified cell concentrations were calculated according to Park et al [36]. 3).…”

“…Recently, a rapid increase in the O. cf. ovata biomass in Jeju coastal waters has been reported [36]. Most of these reports on the occurrence of benthic dinoflagellates in Korean coastal waters were based on conventional microscopic analysis methods [37][38][39][40].…”

First insights on the diversity of the genus Ostreopsis (Dinophyceae, Gonyaulacales) in Guadeloupe Island, with emphasis on the phylogenetic position of O. heptagona

“…Durando et al, 2007;Tichadou et al, 2010;Vila et al, 2016) where some species form recurrent blooms (Shears and Ross, 2009;Cohu et al, 2013;Ninčević Gladan et al, 2019;Açaf et al, 2020). Reports of Ostreopsis have become more and more frequent over the past decades (Shears and Ross, 2009;Shah et al, 2014;Park et al, 2020). Furthermore, palytoxin analogues can bio-accumulate in marine organisms (Biré et al, 2013(Biré et al, , 2015 and constitute a significant risk for human health because of their potentially high toxicity and their thermostability (Katikou, 2007).…”