Contact micropredation may play a more important role than exotoxicity does in the lethal effects of Karlodinium australe blooms: Evidence from laboratory bioassays

Song, Xiaoying and Hu, Zhangxi and Shang, Lixia and Leaw, Chui Pin and Lim, Po Teen and Tang, Ying Zhong (2020) Contact micropredation may play a more important role than exotoxicity does in the lethal effects of Karlodinium australe blooms: Evidence from laboratory bioassays. Harmful Algae, 99. ISSN 1568-9883, DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2020.101926.

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Abstract

Multiple dinoflagellate species from the genus Karlodinium have been well known to form massive and toxic blooms that consequently cause fish kills in many coastal waters around the world. Karlodinium australe is a mixotrophic and potentially ichthyotoxic species associated with fish kills. Here, we investigated phagotrophy of K. australe (isolate KaJb05) established from a bloom event in the West Johor Strait, Malaysia, using several prey species (phytoplankton, zooplankton, and larval fish). The results showed that K. australe ingested relatively small prey cells of co-occurring microalgae by direct engulfment, while it fed on larger prey cells of microalgae by tube feeding. The results of animal exposure bioassays using rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis), brine shrimp (Artemia salina), and larval fish (Oryzias melastigma) demonstrated that phagotrophy (in terms of the trophic mode of the dinoflagellate), or micropredation (in terms of the mechanism of lethal effects on prey), played a more important role than the toxicity did in causing the lethal effects of K. australe on these aquatic animals under low cell densities of K. australe, while the mortalities of animals observed in the exposure to cell lysates of K. australe were solely caused by the toxicity. A comparison of the lethal effects between K. australe and K. veneficum revealed that the lethal effect of K. australe on rotifers was much stronger than that of K. veneficum at all cell densities applied in the experiments and the more ``aggressive'' micropredation of K. australe is suggested to explain the difference in lethal effect between K. austale and K. veneficum. Our results may explain why K. australe exhibited fish killings during moderate blooms at cell densities < 2.34 x 10(6) cells L-1, whereas K. veneficum was observed to cause massive fish kills only if the cell density was above 10(7) cells L-1. We believe these findings provide new insights into the ecological consequences of phagotrophy exhibited in some mixotrophic and harmful algae such as species of Karlodinium and of HAB events in general.

Item Type: Article
Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [61533011]
Uncontrolled Keywords: Harmful algal blooms (HABs); Karlodinium australe; Phagotrophy; Peduncle; Micropredation; Ichthyotoxicity
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GC Oceanography
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Divisions: Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research & Innovation) Office > Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences
Depositing User: Ms Zaharah Ramly
Date Deposited: 06 Oct 2023 01:20
Last Modified: 06 Oct 2023 01:20
URI: http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/36316

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