Presence of Alexandrium catenella and paralytic shellfish toxins in finfish, shellfish and rock crabs in Monterey Bay, C
- PDF / 558,613 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595 x 791 pts Page_size
- 68 Downloads / 141 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Presence of Alexandrium catenella and paralytic shellWsh toxins in WnWsh, shellWsh and rock crabs in Monterey Bay, California, USA Rozalind J. Jester · Keri A. Baugh · Kathi A. Lefebvre
Received: 5 May 2008 / Accepted: 26 November 2008 / Published online: 7 January 2009 © The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The central California coast is a highly productive, biodiverse region that is frequently aVected by the toxin-producing dinoXagellate Alexandrium catenella. Despite the consistent presence of A. catenella along our coast, very little is known about the movement of its toxins through local marine food webs. In the present study, we investigated 13 species of commercial WnWsh and rock crabs harvested in Monterey Bay, California for the presence of paralytic shellWsh toxins (PSTs) and compared them to the presence of A. catenella and PSTs in sentinel shellWsh over a 3-year period. Between 2003 and 2005, A. catenella was noted in 55% of surface water samples (n = 307) and reached a maximum concentration of 17,387 cells L¡1 at our nearshore site in Monterey Bay. Peak cell densities occurred in the month of July and were associated with elevated shellWsh toxicity in the summers of 2004 and 2005. When A. catenella was present, particulate PSTs were detected 71% of the time and reached a maximum concentration of 962 ng STXeq L¡1. Of the 13 species tested, we frequently detected PSTs in PaciWc sardines
Communicated by U.-G. Berninger. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00227-008-1103-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. R. J. Jester (&) Ocean Science Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] K. A. Baugh · K. A. Lefebvre Marine Biotoxins Program, Environmental Conservation Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA-Fisheries, 2725 Montlake Blvd. East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
(Sardinops sagax; maximum 250 g STXeq 100 g¡1), northern anchovies (Engraulis mordax; maximum 23.2 g STXeq 100 g¡1), brown rock crabs (Cancer antennarius; maximum 49.3 g STXeq 100 g¡1) and red rock crabs (C. productus; 23.8 g STXeq 100 g¡1). PSTs were also present in one sample of PaciWc herring (Clupea pallas; 13.3 g STXeq 100 g¡1) and one sample of English sole (Pleuronectes vetulus; 4.5 g STXeq 100 g¡1), and not detected in seven other species of XatWsh tested. The presence of PSTs in several of these organisms reveals that toxins produced by A. catenella are more prevalent in California food webs than previously thought and also indicates potential routes of toxin transfer to higher trophic levels.
Introduction Paralytic shellWsh toxins (PSTs) are produced by members of the dinoXagellate genus Alexandrium and consist of a suite of neurotoxins that are known to adversely aVect human health and marine wildlife. Saxitoxin (STX) is the most potent of the PSTs. Human intoxicatio
Data Loading...
