U.S.-China Cooperative Research: Red Tide Phytoplankton of The South and East China Sea

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The general objective of this cooperative project between Donald Anderson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Qi Yuzao, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China, is to identify, isolate, culture, and characterize selected Chinese red tide phytoplankton species with respect to their toxicity, physiology, geographic distribution, and linkage to specific toxic events. During the last decade, the number, magnitude, and economic impacts of harmful algal blooms (commonly called "red tides") have increased dramatically in Chinese coastal waters. A newly established national red tide research program in China includes plans to characterize the taxonomy, physiology, and toxicology of species indigenous to Chinese coastal waters, yet so far only one of the ten important harmful phytoplankton species is in culture, and some of the necessary equipment and expertise for toxicological and physiological characterization is not available in China. This project represents one step toward the goal of establishing a Chinese culture collection of harmful phytoplankton species and documenting their taxonomy, physiology, toxicology, spatial distribution, and ecology. This work will contribute to more general understanding of the field behavior and characteristics of a toxic bloom species isolated by geography from populations in US coastal waters.