Research on Ecological and Biogeochemical Aspects of HABs using Mass Spectrometric Techniques

Description:

Proliferation of certain algae in marine or brackish waters can cause massive fish kills, contaminate seafood with toxins, and alter ecosystems in ways that human perceive as harmful. These events are now generally referred to as “harmful algal blooms” (HABs), a recurrent and globally increasing phenomenon causing far-reaching problems for fisheries, aquaculture, recreation and tourism, and ecosystem functioning, as well as for human health. Such algal-related problems are especially acute for coastal regions where many of the toxic events and their effects are most concentrated. Algal toxins have recently been documented in various parts of South America, but the biogeography of the producing organisms, their population dynamics and the fate of the toxins in the food web remain largely unexplored. In view of the anticipated global warming effects on plankton dynamics, particularly in subpolar coastal regions, and the increasing efforts to ensure successful and secure exploitation of fisheries and aquaculture resources, there is a pressing need for a risk assessment of toxic algae. High performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has evolved as a powerful tool to detect phycotoxins very sensitively even at low abundances in environmental samples and to find novel variants of known marine biotoxins. The course will introduce state-of-the-art LC-MS/MS methodologies that will allow for the study of ecological and biogeochemical aspects of HABs in the ocean. In addition, allelochemical interactions among marine protists and their fish killing effects (ichthyotoxicity) will be discussed.

Contents:

• Main groups of HAB species and their associated toxins
• Chemical structures and mode of action of phycotoxins
• Chemical structures and mode of action of known ichthyotoxins
• Introduction into liquid chromatography
• Functional principle of triple quadrupole mass spectrometry
• Different scanning modes of triple quadrupole mass spectrometers and their application
• Methods for quantification and identification of phycotoxins
• Structural interpretation of collision induced dissociation (CID) mass spectra
• Geographic distribution of phycotoxins
• Sampling techniques for phycotoxins
• Strategies of finding source organisms of phycotoxins
• Demonstration of allelochemical effects of HAB species

Methodology:

This course will provide the teaching content in form of theoretic lectures, which will be amplified by seminars. These activities will be accompanied by groupwise practical laboratory units with individual reports.