Multispecies mass mortality of marine fauna linked to a toxic dinoflagellate bloom

Autor: Sylvie Lessard, Nadia Ménard, Michel Starr, Pierre Béland, Denis Lefaivre, Gilbert Sauvé, Michel Robert, Andrew Wotherspoon, Stéphane Lair, Lena N. Measures, Sonia Michaud, Michael A. Quilliam, Michael Scarratt, Robert Michaud
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
Fauna
lcsh:Medicine
Marine and Aquatic Sciences
Toxicology
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
01 natural sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Toxins
Marine Fish
lcsh:Science
Mammals
Liquid Chromatography
Seals
Multidisciplinary
biology
Ecology
Chromatographic Techniques
Fishes
food and beverages
Eutrophication
Plankton
Alexandrium tamarense
Vertebrates
Dinoflagellida
Bloom
Research Article
Toxic Agents
Marine Biology
Research and Analysis Methods
010603 evolutionary biology
Algal bloom
Birds
Animals
Seawater
Marine Mammals
Toxicity
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
lcsh:R
fungi
Organisms
Dinoflagellate
Biology and Life Sciences
Aquatic animal
Molluscs
biology.organism_classification
Invertebrates
High Performance Liquid Chromatography
Amniotes
Earth Sciences
lcsh:Q
Zdroj: PLoS ONE
PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 5, p e0176299 (2017)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Popis: Following heavy precipitation, we observed an intense algal bloom in the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) that coincided with an unusually high mortality of several species of marine fish, birds and mammals, including species designated at risk. The algal species was identified as Alexandrium tamarense and was determined to contain a potent mixture of paralytic shellfish toxins (PST). Significant levels of PST were found in the liver and/or gastrointestinal contents of several carcasses tested as well as in live planktivorous fish, molluscs and plankton samples collected during the bloom. This provided strong evidence for the trophic transfer of PST resulting in mortalities of multiple wildlife species. This conclusion was strengthened by the sequence of mortalities, which followed the drift of the bloom along the coast of the St. Lawrence Estuary. No other cause of mortality was identified in the majority of animals examined at necropsy. Reports of marine fauna presenting signs of neurological dysfunction were also supportive of exposure to these neurotoxins. The event reported here represents the first well-documented case of multispecies mass mortality of marine fish, birds and mammals linked to a PST-producing algal bloom.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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