Detection of the phycotoxin pectenotoxin-2 in waters around King George Island, Antarctica

KROCK, BERND; SCHLOSS, IRENE R.; TREFAULT, NICOLE; TILLMANN, URBAN; HERNANDO, MARCELO; DEREGIBUS, DOLORES; ANTONI, JULIETA; ALMANDOZ, GASTÓN O.; HOPPENRATH, MONA

POLAR BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2020 vol. 43 p. 263 - 277

0722-4060

In order to set a base line for the observation of planktonic community changes due to global change, protistan planktonsampling in combination with phycotoxin measurements and solid phase adsorption toxin tracking (SPATT) was performedin two bays of King George Island (KGI) in January 2013 and 2014. In addition, SPATT sampling was performed in PotterCove during a one-year period from January 2014 until January 2015. Known toxigenic taxa were not firmly identified inplankton samples but there was microscopical evidence for background level presence of Dinophysis spp. in the area. Thiswas consistent with environmental conditions during the sampling periods, especially strong mixing of the water columnand low water temperatures that do not favor dinoflagellate proliferations. Due to the lack of significant abundance of thecatetoxigenic dinoflagellate species in microplankton samples, no phycotoxins were found in net tow samples. In contrast, SPATTsampling revealed the presence of dissolved pectenotoxin-2 (PTX-2) and its hydrolyzed form PTX-2 seco acid in both baysand during the entire one-year sampling period. The presence of dissolved PTX in coastal waters of KGI is strong new evidencefor the presence of PTX-producing species, i.e., dinoflagellates of the genus Dinophysis in the area. The presence ofphycotoxins and their respective producers, even at the low background concentrations found in this study, may be the seedof possible proliferations of these species under changing environmental conditions. Furthermore, phycotoxins can be usedas chemotaxonomic markers for a very specific group of plankton thus allowing to track the presence of this group over time.