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Harmful Algal Blooms in the Río de la Plata Region

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Plankton Ecology of the Southwestern Atlantic

Abstract

The Río de la Plata oceanic front has recurrent blooms of species that cause harm to humans and marine ecosystems, especially toxic species that produce paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), amnesic shellfish toxins (AST), diarrhetic shellfish toxins (DST), yessotoxins (YTXs), azaspiracid toxins (AZAs), and cyanotoxins (CTXs). Up to now, there has been a growth in the number of reports of human health and economic impacts caused by the increase in intensity and geographic spread of blooms of toxic species like Alexandrium tamarense/catenella, Gymnodinium catenatum, and Dinophysis acuminata complex. This review seeks to provide a broad overview of the harmful species recorded for this region. Another key issue is the relationship between the observed spread of A. tamarense/catenella and G. catenatum blooms and the oceanographic patterns that appear to control the occurrence, distribution, and toxicity of these toxic dinoflagellates along the Río de la Plata oceanic front.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dirección Nacional de Recursos Acuáticos (DINARA), Montevideo, Uruguay

    Silvia M. Méndez

  2. Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    José I. Carreto

Authors
  1. Silvia M. Méndez
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  2. José I. Carreto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia M. Méndez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CONICET, Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Mónica S. Hoffmeyer

  2. CONICET, INIDEP, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Marina E. Sabatini

  3. Universidade de São Paulo, Oceanographic Institute, São Paulo, Brazil

    Frederico P. Brandini

  4. Universidad de la Republica, Facultad de Ciencias+CURE, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Danilo L. Calliari

  5. Laboratorio de Hidrobiología, Universidad de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Trelew, Argentina

    Norma H. Santinelli

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Méndez, S.M., Carreto, J.I. (2018). Harmful Algal Blooms in the Río de la Plata Region. In: Hoffmeyer, M., Sabatini, M., Brandini, F., Calliari, D., Santinelli, N. (eds) Plankton Ecology of the Southwestern Atlantic. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77869-3_21

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