Cawthron Summer Scholar Explores Bloom-Forming Freshwater Cyano bacteria Globally, cyanobacteria blooms in freshwater environments are causing water quality problems and health risks with increasing frequency. New Zealand is no stranger to this, suffering from blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria in our lakes (e.g., Microcystis) and our rivers (e.g., Phormidium). Over the last four decades, this has led to numerous animal deaths (dogs, sheep and cattle) and the closure of recreational swimming sites due to the human risk at certain times of the year. Whilst many advancements in our understanding of cyanobacteria blooms have been made in the past 30-40 years, there are still knowledge gaps surrounding the ecology of bloom-forming cyanobacteria, the triggers for toxin production and risk posed by cyanobacteria blooms in rivers. Over the summer of 2017/18 the Cawthron Foundation provided the Sir Theodore Rigg scholarship to an undergraduate student to work on research projects associated with bloomforming cyanobacteria. The scholarship was awarded to Charlotte Tomlinson, a third-year Environmental Science student from the University of Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand; Fig. 1). Charlotte spent ten weeks at Cawthron Institute working alongside researchers Jonathan Puddick, Konstanze Steiner and Susie Wood on projects related to freshwater cyanobacteria. Charlottes enthusiasm and aptitude meant that she worked on three research projects during her scholarship period. For her primary project, Charlotte purified toxic and non-toxic metabolites from cyanobacteria in order to assess how the compounds influenced the growth and photosynthetic activity of non-toxic cyanobacteria from the Cawthron Institute Culture Collection of Micro-algae (CICCM; http://cultures. cawthron.org.nz/). The occurrence of a toxic bloom of Phormidium in the Hutt River (Wellington, New Zealand) led to Charlotte taking on a field study to assess whether anatoxins (produced by Phormidium) were released into the water and whether any patterns were evident. Going out into the field gave Charlotte a great insight into the diverse range of skills of algal researchers and an appreciation for the importance of work on toxic algae: There were quite a few people that were interested in what we were doing and the risks posed by toxic algae in the river. We also noticed a lot of people using the river recreationally, so it is really important to monitor and study whats going on, so that we can help to make it safer for people to use, Charlotte said in a radio inter- view she took part in during her time at Cawthron (https://soundcloud.com/ cawthroninstitute/kendall-mormanand-charlotte-tomlinson-cawthronfoundation-scholarships). Charlottes third project was a cyanobacteria culturing experiment to evaluate the effect of temperature and light intensity on homoanatoxin-a (HTX) production in Oscillatoria strains from the Pasteur Culture Collection of Cyanobacteria (https://webext.pasteur. fr/cyanobacteria/). Because one of the Oscillatoria strains grew as benthic mats, this meant that 372 individual culturing pottles needed to be prepared, harvested and processed to conduct the experiment under six different culturing conditions. The results from this work have since been used to optimise the production of HTX in the hopes of purifying sufficient quantities for future toxicology work. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience for all involved in the 2017/18 Cawthron Foundation Summer Scholarship Programme. For the researchers, it provided an opportunity to pass on some of their skills to the next generation of scientists and to inspire them to consider some of the environmental challenges the world faces. Charlotte noted that one of her highlights was being a part of an active science organisation, finding out what other people were working on and assisting others with their research projects. Acknowledgements The 2017/18 Sir Theodore Rigg scholarship was made possible with the generous financial support of the Network Tasman Trust, Pub Charity and private donations. Research funding which supported Charlottes work was received from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand (CAW1601) and the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment. Authors Jonathan Puddick, Charlotte Tomlinson, Konstanze Steiner & Susie Wood; Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand. Corresponding author: jonathan.puddick@cawthron.org.nz Fig. 1. Charlotte Tomlinson (Cawthron Foundation Summer Scholar) purifying cyanobacterial toxins for future toxicology work. 18 HARMFUL ALGAE NEWS NO. 60 / 2018 Harmful Algae News An IOC Newsletter on Toxic Algae and Algal Blooms No. 60 - July 2018 www.ioc-unesco.org/hab Marine eukaryote and HAB monitoring in Japan with next generation technology Sequencing technologies such as Illumina MiSeq have made it possible to obtain billions of sequence reads in a Frequency distribution (%) the surface data was used in this study. Surface seawater (0.5 L) was collected weekly with a plastic bucket during the same period. For MPS-based monitoring based on amplicon-seq of 18S-rRNA gene (V79 region), PCR amplification and 454 pyrosequencing were performed accor Inland Sea, 2-17-5 Maruishi, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima 739-045, Japan Hiroshi Shimada, Central Fisheries Research Institute of Hokkaido Research Organization, Hamanaka-cho 238, Yoichi, Hokkaido 0468555, Japan Seiji Katakura, City of Mombetsu, Kaiyo-koryukan, Kaiyo-koen, Mombetsu, Hokkaido 094-0031, Jap Quantifying dinoflagellate cysts in bottom sediments: a response to Anderson 2018 Problems associated with quantifying dinoflagellate cysts in bottom sediments featured prominently in Don Anderson s personal retrospective view of his contribution to the early days of HAB cyst research published rece viously, sample sites should be chosen to avoid such areas if possible. Clearly, there is room for questions or criticism when this dynamic system is modelled from the assumption that bottom sediments, for example in Anderson s work in The Gulf of Maine, are in a static stable condition whereby a sa Contribution of marine invertebrates to Ciguatera poisoning : the case study of French Polynesia Reported as early as the 15th century by explorers, ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most prominent non-bacterial seafood poisoning worldwide. Widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, CFP res au développement du phytoplancton ciguatérigène en Polynésie française: CARISTO-Pf n7937/MSR/REC of 4th of December 2015 and Arrêté nHC/491/ DIE/BPT of 30th March 2016). Figure 2. Comparison of Pacific ciguatoxins (P-CTXs) profiles in A) in vitro cultures of Gambierdiscus polynesiensis (TB-92 [14]) Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) technology for field monitoring of Gambierdiscus toxins with passive samplers Ciguatera poisoning is a seafood intoxication classically associated with the consumption of tropical coral reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins (CTXs), although some marine Fig. 2. Summary of the results demonstrating that SPATT passive sampling could advantageously contribute to the reinforcement of ciguateric risk assessment and management programmes as a supplementary tool. or of very low densities of toxic Gambierdiscus cells. However, CTXs were detected in numero New limits of Ostreopsis distribution in the Bay of Biscay: a first report of Ostreopsis in Santander Bay, Cantabria (Northern Spain) Fig. 1. Location of sampling sites The genus Ostreopsis encompasses benthic dinoflagellates that represent one of the main microalgal threats for beach tourism in w Bloom of Ostreopsis cf. siamensis in Lisbon Bay Fig. 1. Sampling sites on Lisbon Bay Reports of benthic HAB events have increased during the last decade in temperate regions. These have been associated with proliferations of benthic toxic dinoflagellates, in particular species of Ostreopsis. The M Table1 1- List - List the macroalgaecommunity communityspecies species Table ofof the macroalgae ITSA and ITSB primers [6]. Phylogenetic analysis (not Asparagopsis armata Corallina sp. shown) revealed that all the Caulacanthus ustulatus Cystoseira sp. studied sequences grouped Ceramiacea Derbesia s A possible link between the breakdown of a fertilizer tank and a toxic Pseudonitzschia bloom fishery, leaving toxic blooms undetected in other areas. By the time of the bloom, the diatom community primarily consisted of P. seriata (Fig. 3). Identification of P. seriata as the potential culprit diat Fig. 3. Pseudo-nitzschia seriata TEM micrograph of the poroid structure arranged within the striae consisting of two outer rows of larger poroids and one or two inner rows of smaller poroids. induce DA production in P. australis [7], and the most potent DA-inducing N form has been shown to be urea. Golden alga Prymnesium parvum Carter bloom off Azhikode, southwest India In September 2009, during the southwest monsoon season, a quasi-monospecific bloom of Prymnesium parvum was collected off Azhikode (10o 11 02 N; 76o 09 22 E), on the southwest coast of India (Fig. 1). A conspicuous pale browni Regional Workshop on Monitoring and Management Strategies for Benthic HABs if possible, establish tools for standardized procedures. The exercise is open to the entire international community. The goal of achieving improved assessments of the risks associated with BHABs will help reduce the health, Workshop on morpho-molecular methods for the study of dinoflagellate cysts A workshop on techniques for the morphological and molecular identification of cysts from toxic HAB species, led by Drs Kenneth Neil Mertens, Kirsty Smith, Lesley Rhodes and Lincoln MacKenzie, was held recently at the Cawthro Cawthron Summer Scholar Explores Bloom-Forming Freshwater Cyano bacteria Globally, cyanobacteria blooms in freshwater environments are causing water quality problems and health risks with increasing frequency. New Zealand is no stranger to this, suffering from blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria Canadian HAB Scientists Hold Workshop to Establish National Priorities and Develop Research Network A National Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) workshop was organized and chaired by Dr. Ian Perry at the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Sidney, British Columbia, July 11- Joint FAO, IAEA, IOC and WHO Technical Meeting for the development of an InterAgency Global Ciguatera Strategy Harmful Algae News has previously brought information on an initiative between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Environment Laboratories in Monaco jointly with the Oceanographi 12th Advanced Phytoplankton Course - APC 12 Identification, Taxonomy, Systematics Roscoff Biological Station (France) - 19th May to 8th June 2019 APC12 is organized by the Station Biologique de Roscoff together with the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and the IOC Science and Communication Centre on H ICHA 2018 News: 669 abstracts evaluated ! 250 orals + 45 ignite talks selected and participants notified ICHA 2018 News: 669 abstracts evaluated ! 9 plenaries confirmed 250 orals + 45 ignite talks selected and participants notified 3 satellite sessions 9 plenaries confirmed 3 satellite sessions