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Project properties |
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| Title | Harmful algal blooms under climate change (internship/thesis) |
| Group | Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 30-36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Karen Brandenburg (k.brandenburg@nioo.knaw.nl),
Dr. Dedmer van de Waal (d.vandewaal@nioo.knaw.nl) |
| Examiner(s) | dr Edwin Peeters |
| Contact info | Dr Edwin Peeters (edwin.peeters@wur.nl)
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| Begin date | 2017/05/01 |
| End date | 2017/12/28 |
| Description | Since 2012, massive algal blooms formed by the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium ostenfeldii have been recurring in the �Ouwerkerkse kreek� in the Netherlands. A. ostenfeldii produces potent neurotoxins, which can accumulate is shellfish and pose a health risk for humans. Consumptions of these shellfish can cause severe paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), which can even lead to death.
The success of Alexandrium population is often attributed to a high genotypic diversity with distinct flexible traits. These traits include in the production of PSP toxins, production of allelochemicals, which can lyse competing phytoplankton species and small grazers, and mixotrophy, allowing them to feed on organic substrates next to photosynthesis. The student project will investigate to effects of climate change and nutrient limitation on these different traits of A. ostenfeldii and its growth. Experiments will be performed in newly developed chemostat culture systems, where cell cultures are kept continuously and in a prolonged period of nitrogen limitation, so physiological changes in the cell can be assessed appropriately. In addition, competition experiments can eventually be performed in these systems, where we can let different A. ostenfeldii strains compete for nitrogen with each other or another phytoplankton species and we can also assess how changes in climate, such as warming, influence the outcome of the competition. Place: NIOO-KNAW, Wageningen |
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