Toxicity in Resting Cysts of the Red-Tide Dinoflagellate Gonyaulax excavata from Deeper Water Coastal Sediments
- 29 September 1978
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 201 (4362), 1223-1225
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.201.4362.1223
Abstract
For the first time, Gonyaulax excavata cysts have been shown to be toxic. Bottom sediments from a water depth of 90 meters off the Maine coast were extremely rich in cysts, which were approximately ten times more toxic than the corresponding motile stages. Cysts are probably ingested by shellfish, thereby causing shellfish toxicity in deeper waters offshore and contributing to shellfish toxicity in shallower coastal waters. A new approach to the problem of paralytic shellfish poisoning is therefore needed, one that takes into account benthic cysts and sedimentary factors affecting their distribution. The possible dangers of spreading poisoning through human activities must be considered.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cysts of the toxic red-tide dinoflagellateGonyaulax excavata(Braarud) Balech from Oslofjorden, NorwaySarsia, 1977
- Cyst formation, sedimentation, and preservation: Factors affecting dinoflagellate assemblages in recent sediments from trondheimsfjord, NorwayReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 1976
- Implications of Dinoflagellate Life Cycles on Initiation ofGymnodinium BreveRed TidesEnvironmental Letters, 1975
- Marine Dinoflagellate Cultures from Resting SporesPhycologia, 1967
- Paralytic Shellfish Poison in Sea Scallops (Placopecten magellanicus, Gmelin)Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 1965