DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Abundance, trophic transfer, and cross-ecosystem movement of multiple cyanotoxins in arctic lakes

论文研究：北极湖泊中多种蓝藻毒素的丰度、营养转移和跨生态系统移动

• 批准号: 1601269
• 负责人: Mark McPeek
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Dartmouth College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1601269&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Abundance; trophic; transfer

Freshwater lakes provide critical value human populations, from water supply for households, industry, and agriculture to opportunities for active and passive recreation. However, lake-dwelling cyanobacteria and their toxins, cyanotoxins, are of increasing concern, threatening the health of aquatic food webs and the safe uses of freshwaters. Most studies of cyanotoxins have focused on temperate and tropical systems with conspicuous surface blooms of planktonic cyanobacteria. However, not all toxin-producing cyanobacteria form surface blooms, both bottom-dwelling cyanobacteria and very small single cells in the water column, can produce toxins, and the abundance, impacts on organisms that consume the cyanobacteria, and the potential for toxins to move from lakes to the lands surrounding them is poorly understood, especially in polar regions. To date, very few studies have examined whether polar freshwater cyanobacteria produce cyanotoxins and the extent to which cyanotoxins move through polar aquatic food webs or into terrestrial ecosystems remains largely unknown. This project will expand our understanding of the types of ecosystems that support toxic cyanobacteria and contribute to the evaluation of which systems are currently at risk or may become at risk in the future. Studies of the cyanotoxins produced by both bottom-dwelling cyanobacteria and very small single cells in the water column will take place in lakes and ponds in Greenland. To complement ongoing studies of the most common class of cyanotoxin, the researchers will evaluate the production of four additional toxins and their transfer through aquatic food webs and into terrestrial ecosystems. As such, this project will expand the knowledge on the geographic and taxonomic range and ecological distribution of cyanotoxins relevant in both the scientific and public health communities.The research funded by this grant will use samples previously collected from 19 lakes and ponds in southwestern Greenland to (1) quantify the abundance of four additional classes of cyanotoxins (anatoxin-a, saxitoxins, cylindrospermosins, and BMAA) within the aquatic ecosystem and (2) estimate cyanotoxin transfer to terrestrial ecosystems in order to obtain a more complete picture of within- and across-ecosystem movement of biotoxins in Arctic lakes and nearby terrestrial habitats. Preliminary data suggest that hepatoxic microcystins are produced and released by benthic colonial cyanobacteria of the genus Nostoc and are also found in pelagic non-blooming phytoplankton. Moreover, microcystins are being transferred into zooplankton and invertebrate larvae. This research will extend these microcystin analyses into the terrestrial environment and investigate the presence of four additional cyanotoxins within the food web. The researchers will investigate toxin production, the transfer of cyanotoxins to other organisms in the lake, and several mechanisms (i.e., emerging insects, aerosols) that may influence the movement of toxins from the aquatic to terrestrial ecosystem. The already-documented presence and movement of cyanotoxins in these lakes demonstrate that high-latitude lakes can support toxigenic cyanobacteria, and that we may be underestimating the potential for these systems to develop high levels of toxicity in the future.

从家庭，工业和农业的供水到积极和被动娱乐的机会，淡水湖泊提供了至关重要的人口。但是，湖泊蓝细菌及其毒素蓝毒素引起了人们的关注，威胁着水生食物网的健康和淡水的安全使用。大多数氰毒素的研究都集中在温带和热带系统上，具有明显的浮游蓝细菌表面开花。然而，并非所有产生毒素的蓝细菌都形成表面盛开，底部的蓝细菌和水柱中的很小的单个细胞都会产生毒素，并且对消耗蓝细菌的有机体产生了丰富的影响，这些有机体消耗了消耗毒素的潜力，从而使毒素从周围的湖泊转移到周围的土地上，尤其是在这些湖泊中，尤其是在这些方面，尤其是在这些方面，在这些区域中尤其是在这些方面。迄今为止，很少有研究检查过极性淡水蓝细菌是否产生氰毒素以及氰毒素在极地水生食物网中或进入陆地生态系统的程度仍然很大程度上是未知的。该项目将扩大我们对支持有毒蓝细菌的生态系统类型的理解，并有助于评估哪些系统当前处于危险之中或将来可能面临风险。 对水柱中的底部蓝细菌和非常小的单细胞产生的蓝毒素的研究将在格陵兰的湖泊和池塘进行。为了补充对最常见类氰毒素类别的正在进行的研究，研究人员将评估四种另外的毒素的产生及其通过水生食物网和陆地生态系统的转移。 As such, this project will expand the knowledge on the geographic and taxonomic range and ecological distribution of cyanotoxins relevant in both the scientific and public health communities.The research funded by this grant will use samples previously collected from 19 lakes and ponds in southwestern Greenland to (1) quantify the abundance of four additional classes of cyanotoxins (anatoxin-a, saxitoxins, cylindrospermosins, and BMAA）在水生生态系统内和（2）估计氰毒素转移到陆地生态系统中，以便获得对北极湖泊和附近地面栖息地中生物毒素内部和跨生物系统运动的更完整的图像。初步数据表明，肝毒性微囊蛋白蛋白是由Nostoc属的底栖殖民地蓝细菌产生和释放的，并且在肾上腺非淋浴浮游植物中也发现。此外，微囊素正在转移到浮游植物和无脊椎动物幼虫中。这项研究将将这些微囊蛋白分析扩展到陆地环境中，并研究食物网中有四种其他氰毒素。研究人员将研究毒素的产生，氰毒素向湖中的其他生物的转移以及可能影响毒素从水生生态系统转向的几种机制（即新兴昆虫，气溶胶）。这些湖泊中蓝毒素已经记录在案中的存在和运动表明，高纬度湖泊可以支持毒蓝细菌，并且我们可能低估了这些系统在未来发展高水平毒性的潜力。