Title: Empirical study of cyanobacterial toxicity along a trophic gradient of lakes
Abstract:A series of 22 lakes in southern Quebec spanning a wide trophic range were sampled to develop models of changes in cyanobacterial abundance and toxicity. All lakes contained toxic cyanobacteria, and e...A series of 22 lakes in southern Quebec spanning a wide trophic range were sampled to develop models of changes in cyanobacterial abundance and toxicity. All lakes contained toxic cyanobacteria, and epilimnetic toxin content, expressed as microcystin equivalents, was best predicted by total nitrogen concentration and total phosphorus concentration (TP). Although phytoplankton biomass increased linearly with increases in TP among lakes, toxigenic biomass increased as greater than the squared power of TP. The only potentially toxigenic genera whose biomass was correlated with microcystin concentration were Microcystis and Anabaena. Surprisingly, the best model for toxic-species biomass was based on epilimnetic nitrogen. The level of the hepatotoxin microcystin per unit biomass in these organisms did not vary markedly among lakes, supporting the idea that environmental factors control the occurrence, but have only a limited effect on the toxicity, of potentially toxic species.Read More
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 119
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