Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 103 (2014): 174-184, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.05.011.
Description:
In early July 2009, an unusually high concentration of the toxic dinoflagellate
Alexandrium fundyense occurred in the western Gulf of Maine, causing surface waters to appear
reddish brown to the human eye. The discolored water appeared to be the southern terminus of a
large-scale event that caused shellfish toxicity along the entire coast of Maine to the Canadian
border. Rapid-response shipboard sampling efforts together with satellite data suggest the water
discoloration in the western Gulf of Maine was a highly ephemeral feature of less than two
weeks in duration. Flow cytometric analysis of surface samples from the red water indicated the
population was undergoing sexual reproduction. Cyst fluxes downstream of the discolored water
were the highest ever measured in the Gulf of Maine, and a large deposit of new cysts was
observed that fall. Although the mechanisms causing this event remain unknown, its timing
coincided with an anomalous period of downwelling-favorable winds that could have played a
role in aggregating upward-swimming cells. Regardless of the underlying causes, this event
highlights the importance of short-term episodic phenomena on regional population dynamics of
A. fundyense.
Description:
The R/V Tioga sampling effort was facilitated by event response funding from the
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service, Center for
Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, through NOAA Cooperative Agreement NA17RJ1223.
Additional support for follow-up analysis and synthesis was provided by NOAA grant
NA06NOS4780245 for the Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) program and the Woods Hole
Center for Oceans and Human Health through National Science Foundation grants OCE-
0430724 and OCE-0911031 and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant
1P50-ES01274201.
Keywords:
Phytoplankton
;
Population dynamics
;
Red tides
;
Cysts
;
Paralytic shellfish poisoning
;
USA
;
Gulf of Maine
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
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