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13 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxins are annually recurrent along the Massachusetts coastline (USA), which includes many small embayments and salt ponds. Among these is the Nauset Marsh System (NMS), which has a long history of PSP toxicity. Little is known, however, about the bloom dynamics of the causative organism Alexandrium fundyense within that economically and socially important system. The overall goal of this work was to characterize the distribution and dynamics of A. fundyense blooms within the NMS and adjacent coastal waters by documenting the distribution and abundance of resting cysts and vegetative cells. Cysts were found predominantly in three drowned kettle holes or salt ponds at the distal ends of the NMS – Salt Pond, Mill Pond, and Town Cove. The central region of the NMS had a much lower concentration of cysts. Two types of A. fundyense blooms were observed. One originated entirely within the estuary, seeded by cysts in the three seedbeds. These blooms developed independently of each other and of the A. fundyense population observed in adjacent coastal waters outside the NMS. The temporal development of the blooms was different in the three salt ponds, with initiation differing by as much as 30 days. These differences do not appear to reflect the initial cyst abundances in these locations, and may simply result from higher cell retention and higher nutrient concentrations in Mill Pond, the first site to bloom. Germination of cysts accounted for a small percentage of the peak cell densities in the ponds, so population size was influenced more by the factors affecting growth than by cyst abundance. Subsurface cell aggregation (surface avoidance) limited advection of the vegetative A. fundyense cells out of the salt ponds through the shallow inlet channels. Thus, the upper reaches of the NMS are at the greatest risk for PSP since the highest cyst abundances and cell concentrations were found there. After these localized blooms in the salt ponds peaked and declined, a second, late season bloom occurred within the central portions of the NMS. The timing of this second bloom relative to those within the salt ponds and the coastal circulation patterns at that time strongly suggest that those cells originated from a regional A. fundyense bloom in the Gulf of Maine, delivered to the central marsh from coastal waters outside the NMS through Nauset Inlet. These results will guide policy decisions about water quality as well as shellfish monitoring and utilization within the NMS and highlight the potential for “surgical” closures of shellfish during PSP events, leaving some areas open for harvesting while others are closed, This work was supported by NOAA Grant NA06OAR4170021, NPS Grant H238015504 and by the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health through NSF Grants OCE-0911031 and OCE-0430724 and NIEHS Grant 1P50-ES01274201. B.G.C. was supported by a Xunta de Galicia Ángeles Alvariño fellowship and the Stanley W. Watson Chair for Excellence in Oceanography under a Postdoctoral program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.[SS]

Alexandrium ostenfeldii is a thecate, mixotrophic dinoflagellate recently linked to a novel suite of toxins called spirolides. This study provides the first description of the regional distribution of A. ostenfeldii in the Gulf of Maine (GOM), and the first report and analysis of spirolide toxicity in A. ostenfeldii in waters south of Nova Scotia. Morphological examination of cells in field samples and of clonal cultures isolated from several stations in the GOM confirmed the presence of A. ostenfeldii. A genus-specific antibody probe, and an A. ostenfeldii species-specific oligonucleotide probe labeled these cells; a probe specific for the North American A. fundyense/tamarense/catenella species complex did not label A. ostenfeldii cells. Cell size ranged from 20 to nearly 90 μm, and most cells contained food vacuoles, with a total vacuole size from 1 to 48 μm. The hydrographic forcings controlling the distribution of A. ostenfeldii in the GOM are quite similar to those acting on the A. fundyense population at the same time of the year. The highest concentrations of A. ostenfeldii were observed nearshore, to the east of Penobscot Bay, at times with an offshore-turning branch of high cell concentration to the south of Penobscot Bay. Casco Bay appears to be an area of accumulation for A. ostenfeldii cells advected toward shore from the core of the population to the northeast. Concentrations of A. ostenfeldii were generally higher at the surface than deeper, except at locations where the pooling of lower-salinity water at the surface may have led to the subduction of the population flowing in from the east. PSP toxins were detected in field populations containing A. ostenfeldii and A. fundyense , but not in A. ostenfeldii cultures isolated from the GOM. Spirolide toxins were found in 36 of 60 field samples. More than 83% of samples containing A. ostenfeldii cells had one or more of spirolide congeners A, B, C2 and D2. The total concentration of spirolides per cell at each station where A. ostenfeldii was detected ranged from non-detectable to 282 fmol cell −1 . A. ostenfeldii cultures originating from different locations showed a great diversity in spirolide content and composition. All cultures contained spirolides, ranging from 28 to 113 fmol cell −1 . Spirolide congeners desMeC, C and D were present in some cultures, but were not detected in any of the field samples. Based on differences and similarities between their toxin profiles, five toxin phenotypes were identified. The highest per cell spirolide contents in the cultures were nearly two times lower than the highest levels observed in field samples. Currently there is no routine monitoring for spirolide toxins in shellfish in the region, but it may be necessary eventually to expand ongoing toxin monitoring in the GOM to include analysis for spirolides.