Seawater carbonate chemistry and toxicity of Pseudo-nitzschia fraudulenta in a laboratory experiment

Anthropogenic CO2 is progressively acidifying the ocean, but the responses of harmful algal bloom species that produce toxins that can bioaccumulate remain virtually unknown. The neurotoxin domoic acid is produced by the globally-distributed diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia. This toxin is responsible for amnesic shellfish poisoning, which can result in illness or death in humans and regularly causes mass mortalities of marine mammals and birds. Domoic acid production by Pseudo-nitzschia cells is known to be regulated by nutrient availability, but potential interactions with increasing seawater CO2 concentrations are poorly understood. Here we present experiments measuring domoic acid production by acclimatized cultures of Pseudo-nitzschia fraudulenta that demonstrate a strong synergism between projected future CO2 levels (765 ppm) and silicate-limited growth, which greatly increases cellular toxicity relative to growth under modern atmospheric (360 ppm) or pre-industrial (200 ppm) CO2 conditions. Cellular Si:C ratios decrease with increasing CO2, in a trend opposite to that seen for domoic acid production. The coastal California upwelling system where this species was isolated currently exhibits rapidly increasing levels of anthropogenic acidification, as well as widespread episodic silicate limitation of diatom growth. Our results suggest that the current ecosystem and human health impacts of toxic Pseudo-nitzschia blooms could be greatly exacerbated by future ocean acidification and 'carbon fertilization' of the coastal ocean.

Data and Resources

This dataset has no data

Cite this as

Tatters, Avery O, Fu, Feixue, Hutchins, David A (2012). Dataset: Seawater carbonate chemistry and toxicity of Pseudo-nitzschia fraudulenta in a laboratory experiment. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.823383

DOI retrieved: 2012

Additional Info

Field Value
Imported on November 30, 2024
Last update November 30, 2024
License CC-BY-3.0
Source https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.823383
Author Tatters, Avery O
Given Name Avery O
Family Name Tatters
More Authors
Fu, Feixue
Hutchins, David A
Source Creation 2012
Publication Year 2012
Resource Type text/tab-separated-values - filename: Tatters_2012
Subject Areas
Name: BiologicalClassification

Name: Chemistry

Related Identifiers
Title: High CO2 and Silicate Limitation Synergistically Increase the Toxicity of Pseudo-nitzschia fraudulenta
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032116.g004
Type: DOI
Relation: IsSupplementTo
Year: 2012
Source: PLoS ONE
Authors: Tatters Avery O , Fu Feixue , Hutchins David A .

Title: seacarb: seawater carbonate chemistry with R. R package version 2.4
Identifier: https://cran.r-project.org/package=seacarb
Type: DOI
Relation: References
Year: 2011
Authors: Lavigne Héloïse , Gattuso Jean-Pierre .