Active and resting harmful dinoflagellates in the highly productive mussel culture area of the Mar Piccolo (northern Ionian Sea)

Abstract

The presence of harmful microalgae in mariculture sites represents a risk for production and human health, so the monitoring of these taxa is important for the early warning of harmful algal blooms. The aim of this work was to gain knowledge about the presence and distribution of harmful dinoflagellate taxa in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Northern Ionia Sea), through a long-term data series (from 1991 to 2019), using an integrated water/sediment approach. The results showed that twenty-two harmful dinoflagellates, twenty as motile forms in the water column and eight as cysts in the sediments, were identified in the study area and, in the column water, mainly during the summer and fall periods. All the taxa were potentially toxic except Levanderina fissaand Scrippsiella acuminata complex that are classified as high biomass producers. All these data could be useful to understand the dynamics of potentially toxic dinoflagellates in coastal sites devoted to aquaculture.