Deposit-feeders accumulate the cyanobacterial toxin nodularin

• Blooms of toxic cyanobacteria may potentially affect food web productivity and even be a human health hazard. In the Baltic Sea, regularly occurring summer blooms of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria are often dominated by Nodularia spumigena, which produces the potent hepatotoxin nodularin. Evidence of sedimentation of these blooms indicates that benthic fauna can be exposed to nodularin. In a one month experiment, we simulated the settling of a summer bloom dominated by N. spumigena in sediment microcosms with three species of sediment-dwelling, deposit-feeding macrofauna, the amphipods Monoporeia affinis and Pontoporeia femorata and the bivalve Macoma balthica, and analyzed nodularin in the animals by HPLC-ESI-MS (high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry). We found nodularin in quantities of 50-120ngg-1 DW. The results show that deposit-feeding macrofauna in the Baltic Sea may contribute to trophic transfer of nodularin.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Annan kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Other Chemistry Topics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Analytisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Analytical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Benthic–pelagic coupling

Bioaccumulation

Ecosystem effects

Food web

Incorporation

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)