As part of the Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX
1) project, we determined
Alexandrium fundyense abundance, paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxin levels in various plankton size fractions, and the community composition of potential grazers of
A. fundyense in plankton size fractions during blooms of this toxic dinoflagellate in the coastal Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank in spring and summer of 2007, 2008, and 2010. PSP toxins and
A. fundyense cells were found throughout the sampled water column (down to 50 m) in the 20–64 µm size fractions. While PSP toxins were widespread throughout all size classes of the zooplankton grazing community, the majority of the toxin was measured in the 20–64 µm size fraction.
A. fundyense cellular toxin content estimated from field samples was significantly higher in the coastal Gulf of Maine than on Georges Bank. Most samples containing PSP toxins in the present study had diverse assemblages of grazers. However, some samples clearly suggested PSP toxin accumulation in several different grazer taxa including tintinnids, heterotrophic dinoflagellates of the genus
Protoperidinium, barnacle nauplii, the harpacticoid copepod
Microsetella norvegica, the calanoid copepods
Calanus finmarchicus and
Pseudocalanus spp., the marine cladoceran
Evadne nordmanni, and hydroids of the genus
Clytia. Thus, a diverse assemblage of zooplankton grazers accumulated PSP toxins through food-web interactions. This raises the question of whether PSP toxins pose a potential human health risk not only from nearshore bivalve shellfish, but also potentially from fish and other upper-level consumers in zooplankton-based pelagic food webs.