Acronym TOXALGAE
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Toxic Algae: Taxonomy, Quantification and Early Warning Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Wenche Eikrem Coordinator email wenche.eikrem@ibv.uio.no
Coordinator institution
NIVA - Norwegian Institute for Water Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2010 End year 2015 Funding (€) € 747,000 Website https://prosjektbanken.forskningsradet.no/en/project/FORISS/196702?Kilde=FORISS&distribution=Ar&chart=bar&calcType=funding&Sprak=no&sortBy=date&sortOrder=desc&resultCount=30&offset=240&TemaEmne.1=Portef%C3%B8lje%20Klima-%20og%20polarforskning Summary TOXICALGAE aimed at increasing our understanding of toxic marine microalgae and we focused primarily on species that are toxic to fish. Many of them are small and fragile and difficult to detect by standard monitoring methods such as light microscopy, and new tools that can easily and accurately detect and enumerate microalgae are desirable. During previous years of the project an extensive sampling program was carried out in Outer Oslofjorden (September 2009- June 2012), Skagerrak (April 2012) and coastal waters of Spitsbergen (July 2013). As we have examined the field samples using various microscopy methods and attempted to improve the fixation protocols for these species, we have also modified and developed species-specific quantitative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) primers for many of the known fish killing species present in Norwegian coastal waters and some that we consider doorstep species. Quantitativ PCR (qPCR) assays can, when carefully calibrated, determine the number of an algal species present in the water. We have developed and tested qPCR assays for several known fish killing species: Karenia mikimotoi, Karlodinium veneficum, , Heterosigma akashiwo, , and Fibrocapsa japonica. The assay have also been tested on field samples from Oslofjorden and our results indicate that qPCR is much more sensitive than light microscopy cell counts, for the targeted species. Many species within the raphidophytes are toxic to fish and have been the cause of considerable economic losses to fish farmers worldwide. Several of them are common in European waters, but only H. akashiwo is known to occur regularly in Norwegian waters, while others such as C. marina and F. japonica are expected to establish themselves (doorstep species) in our waters as a result of global warming. In fact, we registered F. japonica in Norwegian waters for the first time in 2009. Our results have also been compared with environmental metabarcoding from Oslofjorden (station OF2) and the results of the two methods comply very well with each other for the raphidophytes Fibrocapsa and Heterosigma, but somewhat less so for the dinoflagellates Karenia and Karlodinium. Our conclusion is that qPCR is a suitable method for monitoring toxic algae. We have examined material of H. akashiwo from all over the world using microscopy and molecular methods. Our investigations confirm its world-wide distribution although some genetic variation among strains that reflect geographic origin is observed. We have also described a new Heterosigma species, H. minor.
Keywords
Algae;
Genetic;
Algal toxins;
Fish;
Monitoring;
Marine Region
13
Northern North Sea (27.IVa)
14
Skagerrak, Kattegat (27.IIIa)
41
Norwegian Sea (27.IIa)
3
Marine Region Map
