Harmful algal bloom | EPFL Graph Search

A harmful algal bloom (HAB), or excessive algae growth, is an algal bloom that causes negative impacts to other organisms by production of natural algae-produced toxins, mechanical damage to other organisms, or by other means. HABs are sometimes defined as only those algal blooms that produce toxins, and sometimes as any algal bloom that can result in severely lower oxygen levels in natural waters, killing organisms in marine or fresh waters. Blooms can last from a few days to many months. After the bloom dies, the microbes that decompose the dead algae use up more of the oxygen, generating a "dead zone" which can cause fish die-offs. When these zones cover a large area for an extended period of time, neither fish nor plants are able to survive. Harmful algal blooms in marine environments are often called "red tides". It is sometimes unclear what causes specific HABs as their occurrence in some locations appears to be entirely natural, while in others they appear

Rapid Recruitment of Symbiotic Algae into Developing Scleractinian Coral Tissues

Thomas Bockel

While the early acquisition of Symbiodiniaceae algae into coral host tissues has been extensively studied, the dynamics of the migration of algal cells into rapidly expanding coral tissues still lacks a systematic study. This work examined two Red Sea branching coral species, Pocillopora damicornis and Stylophora pistillata, as they were growing and expanding their tissue laterally on glass slides (January-June, 2014; 450 assays; five colonies/species). We measured lateral tissue expansion rates and intratissue dinoflagellate migration rates. Tissue growth rates significantly differed between the two species (with Stylophora faster than Pocillopora), but not between genotypes within a species. Using a "flow-through coral chamber" under the microscope, the migration of dinoflagellates towards the peripheral edges of the expanding coral tissue was quantified. On a five-day timescale, the density of the endosymbiotic dinoflagellate cells, presenting within a 90 mu m region of expanding coral tissue (outer edge), increased by a factor of 23.6 for Pocillopora (from 1.2 x 10(4) cells cm(-2) to 2.4 x 10(5) cells cm(-2)) and by a factor of 6.8 for Stylophora (from 3.6 x 10(4) cells cm(-2) to 2.4 x 10(5) cells cm(-2)). The infection rates were fast (5.2 x 10(4) and 4.1 x 10(4) algal cells day-1 cm(-2), respectively), further providing evidence of an as yet unknown pathway of algal movement within coral host tissues.

2019

Thin layers of phytoplankton and harmful algae events in a coastal upwelling system

Bieito Fernandez Castro

We combined time-series from a monitoring program and specific field observations in order to: 1) describe the characteristics of thin layers of phytoplankton (TLP) in the Galician Rías Baixas (NW Iberian Peninsula), 2) investigate the relationship between spatially-extended TLP (se-TLP) events and environmental variables, and 3) analyze the relationship between TLP occurrence and cell densities of toxin-producing harmful algal bloom (THAB) species. Between 2012 and 2015, a total of 118 TLP were detected in any of the 39 stations weekly sampled in the study area in the frame of the monitoring program, which represents a frequency of occurrence of 2%. Most TLP (84%) were detected between May-August and located slightly below shallow pycnoclines. Eight se-TLP events, i.e., when at least five stations were simultaneously influenced by the occurrence of a TLP, were identified during the period 2012–2015. Six out eight of these events happened during summer-upwelling conditions, and according to a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) they were positively correlated with thermal stratification. The other two events, detected during spring-downwelling, were positively correlated with haline stratification. A logistic regression model including six variables (surface temperature, relative humidity, bottom salinity, a proxy for the intrusion of the Miño River plume into Ría de Vigo, Miño River flow, and bottom temperature) explained 42% of the variance in the occurrence of se-TLP events. The temporal persistence of TLP events was confirmed by observations carried out during specific cruises, which showed how TLP were formed and disappeared over short periods of time in response to changes in vertical mixing. TLP were more frequently observed in Ría de Pontevedra, which was characterized by longer harvesting closures due to detection of Dinophysis toxins (DSP: diarrhetic shellfish poisoning toxins and pectenotoxins) above regulatory levels. About 25% of the TLP detected in the Rías Baixas were associated with increased cell densities of potentially toxic Pseudo-nitzschia species (ASP: amnesic shellfish poisoning) and of D. acuminata. These results suggest that a relationship may be established between the occurrence of TLP and the growth and/or accumulation of the main THAB species in the Galician Rías Baixas.

2020

Inhibited vertical mixing and seasonal persistence of a thin cyanobacterial layer in a stratified lake

Damien Bouffard, Bieito Fernandez Castro, Oscar Rodrigo Sepúlveda Steiner, Alfred Johny Wüest

Harmful blooms of the filamentous cyanobacteria Planktothrix rubescens have become common in many lakes as they have recovered from eutrophication over the last decades. These cyanobacteria, capable of regulating their vertical position, often flourish at the thermocline to form a deep chlorophyll maximum. In Lake Zurich (Switzerland), they accumulate during stratified season (May–October) as a persistent metalimnetic thin layer (~2 m wide). This study investigated the role of turbulent mixing in springtime layer formation, its persistence over the summer, and its breakdown in autumn. We characterised seasonal variation of turbulence in Lake Zurich with four surveys conducted in April, July and October of 2018 and September of 2019. Surveys included microstructure profiles and high-resolution mooring measurements. In July and October, the thin layer occurred within a strong thermocline ( N ≳ 0.05 s−1 ) and withstood significant turbulence, observed as turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates ( ≈ 10−8 W kg−1 ). Vertical turbulent overturns –monitored by the Thorpe scale– went mostly undetected and on average fell below those estimated by the Ozmidov scale ( L O ≈ 1 cm). Consistently, vertical diffusivity was close to molecular values, indicating negligible turbulent fluxes. This reduced metalimnetic mixing explains the persistence of the thin layer, which disappears with the deepening of the surface mixed layer in autumn. Bi-weekly temperature profiles in 2018 and a nighttime microstructure sampling in September 2019 showed that nighttime convection serves as the main mechanism driving the breakdown of the cyanobacterial layer in autumn. These results highlight the importance of light winds and convective mixing in the seasonal cycling of P. rubescens communities within a strongly stratified medium-sized lake.

2021