Ichthyotoxic Karlodinium veneficum (Ballantine) J Larsen in the Upper Swan River Estuary (Western Australia): Ecological conditions leading to a fish kill.

ABSTRACT: Ichthyotoxic Karlodinium veneficum has become a persistent problem in the eutrophic Swan River Estuary (SRE) near Perth, Western Australia. Karlotoxin (KmTx) concentrations and K. veneficum were sampled from March to July 2005, spanning a bloom confirmed by microscopy and genetics (ITS sequence), and a fish kill coincident with end of the bloom. The objective of this study was to investigate K. veneficum cell and toxin dynamics, and water quality conditions, leading up to the bloom and fish kill in this estuarine system. Abundance of K. veneficum increased as diatom abundance decreased over a 3-month period (Jan-Mar) preceding the bloom. Low freshwater flow to the SRE characterized the bloom initiation period, while elevated seasonal flows altered water quality and preceded the end of the

SUBMITTER: Adolf JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5026246 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature