Marine benthic dinoflagellates – their relevance for science and society

Dinoflagellates are important primary producers, symbionts and, at the same time, heterotrophic consumers and parasites. The species composi- tion in benthic habitats is quite distinct from planktonic habitats. Our un- derstanding of benthic dinoflagellate biodiversity, biogeography, toxicology and ecology has improved but is still rudimentary. Benthic harmful algal blooms have attracted increasing interest because of the impact of ciguatera poisoning, the most important food-borne disease of non-bacterial origin worldwide, which is caused by benthic dinoflagellate species. Ciguatera ­poisoning appears to have increased worldwide in recent years.

This publication is an updated summary of the taxonomy of currently described taxa and includes morphological and molecular genetic information for species identification. It contains the most comprehensive review of benthic dinoflagellate toxins published so far. The book also describes methods of study, discusses phylogenetics and evolution, and highlights their scientific relevance as well as the health and economic impacts of benthic dinoflagellates for society.

This book is a fundamental contribution to improve the monitoring of benthic dinoflagellates worldwide: 242 species in 63 genera are presented, illustrated with more than 240 color images, about 250 electron micrographs and more than 330 drawings.

Contents
Greetings 4
Foreword 5
Contents 6
I. Introduction 9
II. Materials & Methods 14
Habitats 14
Sampling 14
Extraction = separation from the substrate 16
Light Microscopy (LM) and epifluorescence 17
Fixation and Electron Microscopy (EM) 18
Culturing 19
Quantification 19
Molelcular Genetic Methods of Detection and Quantification 20
Toxicity tests and toxin analyses 22
III. Taxonomy 23
Adenoides 23
Aduncodinium 26
Ailadinium 28
Alexandrium 30
Amphidiniella 32
Amphidiniopsis 34
Amphidinium 55
Ankistrodinium 70
Ansanella 72
Apicoporus 74
Bindiferia 76
Bispinodinium 78
Blixaea 80
Bysmatrum 83
Cabra 91
Caladoa 94
Carinadinium 96
Ceratocorys 100
Chiharadinium 101
Chrysodinium 104
Coolia 105
Coutea 116
Dinothrix 116
Durinskia 120
Fukuyoa 124
Gambierdiscus 127
Glenodinium 140
Gymnodinium 141
Gyrodinium 146
Halostylodinium 151
Herdmania 152
Heterocapsa 154
Katodinium 155
Laciniporus 157
Madanidinium 160
Moestrupia 160
Nusuttodinium 162
Ostreopsis 165
Pachena 179
Paragymnodinium 181
Pellucidodinium 183
Pentaplacodinium 184
Pileidinium 185
Plagiodinium 187
Planodinium 188
Polykrikos 190
Prorocentrum 192
Psammodinium 216
Pseudadenoides 218
Pseudothecadinium 220
Pyramidodinium 222
Rhinodinium 224
Roscoffia 228
Sabulodinium 229
Sinophysis 231
Speroidium 240
Spiniferodinium 241
Stylodinium 244
Symbiodiniales 246
Testudodinium 246
Thecadinium 250
Togula 255
Vulcanodinium 258
IV. Phylogeny and systematics 260
Phylogeny of the morphological adaptations 260
Amphidinium 261
Amphidiniopsis,Archaeperidinium,
Herdmania – Peridiniales 262
Cabra, Rhinodinium, Roscoffia –Podolampadaceae 263
Gonyaulacales 263
Prorocentrum & Pseudadenoides/Adenoides 266
Sinophysis & Sabulodinium 267
‘Dinotoms’ – Blixaea, Dinothrix, Durinskia 267
Dinoflagellate taxa with cryptophyte-(klepto)chloroplasts –
Nusuttodinium 268
The phytodinialean dinoflagellates (‘Phytodiniales’) 268
V. Toxins of benthic dinoflagellates and benthic harmful algal blooms
269
Introduction 269
Gambierdiscus & Fukuyoa 270
Ostreopsis 279
Coolia 282
Prorocentrum 286
Amphidinium 291
Alexandrium 292
Durinskia 292
Vulcanodinium 293
VI. Relevance for science and society 295
Important areas for basic research 295
1. General dinoflagellate evolution 295
2. Choloroplast evolution in (benthic) dinoflagellates 296
3. Nutritional supplements and natural products from
benthic dinoflagellates 299
4. The genetics and evolution of dinoflagellate toxicity 300
Health, social and economic impacts 301
Ostreopsis and palytoxins 301
Gambierdiscus and ciguatoxins 304
Vulcanodinium and pinnatoxins 308
Prorocentrum and okadaic acid 309
Impacts of BHABs on marine biota 310
Conclusions 311

References 312
Taxonomic index 363
Acknowledgements 369
Useful web pages 371
Picture credits 372
Authors’Addresses 373
Imprint 376