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Factors Affecting Cyanotoxin Concentrations in Natural Populations

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Cyanotoxins

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Abstract

As discussed in the introduction to Chapter 3, understanding how environmental factors influence cyanotoxin concentrations in waterbodies requires differentiation between two potential mechanisms: a direct impact on cellular toxin content, and/or an impact on competition between genotypes which would lead to dominance of strains or species with or without microcystin. The field results reported in Chapter 2 reinforce published observations that some taxa produce microcystins, others contain certain neurotoxins, and some may contain both or neither. However, further differentiation is possible: Chapter 4.1 shows that Microcystis spp., Planktothrix agardhii and Planktothrix rubescens each typically contain specific microcystin variants, though relative shares of variants as well as total microcystin content of the field populations may vary. Section 4.2 also addresses the level below that of species — i.e. the level of strains or genotypes — by investigating microcystin content in different strains of Microcystis aeruginosa isolated from two lakes. This results demonstrate a substantial variability of of microcystin content between different strains of M. aeruginosa. In conjunction with culture study results reoported in Chapter 3 (which showed little impact of environmental factors on cellular toxin content), this result suggests competition between strain of a species to be a decisive determinant of microcystin concentration in natural populations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environmental Agency), Corrensplatz 1, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Dr. Ingrid Chorus

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  1. Dr. Ingrid Chorus
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  1. Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environmental Agency), Corrensplatz 1, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Ingrid Chorus

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chorus, I. (2001). Factors Affecting Cyanotoxin Concentrations in Natural Populations. In: Chorus, I. (eds) Cyanotoxins. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59514-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59514-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64004-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59514-1

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