Do the levels of industrial pollutants influence the distribution and abundance of dinoflagellate cysts in the recently-deposited sediment of a Mediterranean coastal ecosystem?

We studied the relationships between sediment industrial pollutants concentrations, sediment characteristics and the dinoflagellate cyst abundance within a coastal lagoon by investigating a total of 55 sampling stations within the Bizerte lagoon, a highly anthropized Mediterranean ecosystem. The sediment of Bizerte lagoon is char- acterized by a high dinocyst abundance, reaching a maximum value of 2742 cysts·g−1 of dry sediment. The investigated cyst diversity was characterized by the presence of 22 dominant dinocyst morphotypes belonging to 11 genera. Two dinoflagellate species dominated the assemblage: Alexandrium pseudogonyaulax and Protoperidinium claudicans, representing 29 to 89% and 5 to 38% of the total cyst abundance, respectively, depending on the station. Seven morphotypes belonging to potentially toxic species were detected, including Alexandrium minutum, A. pseudogonyaulax, Alexandrium catenella/tamarense species complex, Lingulodinium polyedrum, Gonyaulax cf. spinifera complex, Prorocentrum micans and Protoceratium reticulatum. Pearson correlation values showed a positive correlation (α = 0.05) between cyst abundance and both water content and fine silt sediment content. Clustering revealed that the highest abundance of cysts corresponds to stations presenting the higher amounts of heavy metals. The simultaneous autoregressive model (SAM) highlighted a significant correlation (α = 0.05) between cyst accumulation and two main factors: sediment water content and sediment content for several heavy metals, including Hg, Cd, Cu, Ni and Cr. These results suggest that the degree of heavy metal pollution could influence cyst accumulation patterns.peer-reviewe

Consequences of contamination on the interactions between phytoplankton and bacterioplankton.

International audienceSediment resuspension can provoke strong water enrichment in nutrients, contaminants, and microorganisms. Microcosm incubations were performed in triplicate for 96 h, with lagoon and offshore waters incubated either with sediment elutriate or with an artificial mixt. of contaminants issued from sediment resuspension. Sediment elutriate provoked a strong increase in microbial biomass, with little effects on the phytoplankton and bacterioplankton community structures. Among the pool of contaminants released, few were clearly identified as structuring factors of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton communities, namely simazine, Cu, Sn, Ni, and Cr. Effects were more pronounced in the offshore waters, suggesting a relative tolerance of the lagoon microbial communities to contamination. The impacts of contamination on the microbial community structure were direct or indirect, depending on the nature and the strength of the interactions between phytoplankton and bacterioplankton

Capacity of the potentially toxic diatoms Pseudo-nitzschia mannii and Pseudo-nitzschia hasleana to tolerate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

This study investigates the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on two potentially toxic Pseudonitzschia hasleana and P. mannii, isolated from a PAH contaminated marine environment. Both species, maintained in non-axenic cultures, have been exposed during 144 h to increasing concentrations of a 15 PAHs mixture. Analysis of the domoic acid, showed very low concentrations. Dose?response curves for growth and photosynthesis inhibition were determined. Both species have maintained their growth until the end of incubation even at the highest concentration tested (120 ?g l-1), Nevertheless, P mannii showed faster growth and seemed to be more tolerant than P. hasleana. To reduce PAH toxicity, both species have enhanced their biovolume, with a higher increase for P. mannii relative to P hasleana. Both species were also capable of bioconcentrating PAHs and were able to degrade them probably in synergy with their associated bacteria. The highest biodegradation was observed for P. mannii, which could harbored more efficient hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria. This study provides the first evidence that PAHs can control the growth and physiology of potentially toxic diatoms. Future studies should investigate the bacterial community associated with Pseudo-nitzschia species, as responses to pollutants or to other environmental stressors could be strongly influence by associated bacteria