ParaDinoInt · Towards HAB-Controlling Technology: Studying Parasitoid-Dinoflagellate Interactions on Individual- and Population-Scales
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-04-01 → 2023-03-31
- EU contribution
- €160,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Towards HAB-Controlling Technology: Studying Parasitoid-Dinoflagellate Interactions on Individual- and Population-Scales
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are naturally occurring seasonal algal blooms which can have major negative impacts on human activities and health in coastal areas. Parasitoid infection of dinoflagellates may play a major role in the termination of HABs along the Balearic and Catalan coasts; however, little is known about the biological or the biophysical mechanisms controlling parasitoid infection in dinoflagellates, nor how prevalent parasitoids are in natural dinoflagellate populations. The focus of this project was to unravel the interactions between Perkinsozoa parasitoids and dinoflagellates at the cellular and population levels to determine if parasitoids could be used as an effective, environmentally-friendly method to control HABs near the Balearic Islands and the Catalan coast. The work in this project involved: (1) studying the abundance of parasitoids and dinoflagellates of natural phytoplankton assemblages during bloom and non-bloom conditions in Cala Santanyí (Mallorca, Spain); (2) conducting a series of microfluidic experiments to study the biophysics, behaviors of and interactions between individual parasitoids and dinoflagellate host cells; (3) modeling the interactions between dinoflagellates and parasitoids to determine the concentration of parasitoids necessary to control HABS; and, (4) validating the model results using a series of mesocosm experiments. We are still analyzing the data collected from natural sampling; however, we did find parasitoids present in spring samples in 2022, which suggests that parasitoids are present in inlets before the summer blooms. There is also ongoing work to measure the movement behaviors of and interactions between parasitoids and dinoflagellates. This work will enable us to model and evaluate the use of parasitoids to control HABs along the Balearic Islands.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are naturally occurring seasonal algal blooms which can have major negative impacts on human activities and health in coastal areas. While the factors triggering these high biomass blooms has received much attention in the last decades, far less is known about what causes blooms to terminate. Parasitoid infection of dinoflagellates may play a major role in the termination of HABs along the Balearic and Catalan coasts; however, very little is known about the biological or the biophysical mechanisms controlling parasitoid infection in dinoflagellates, nor how prevalent parasitoids are in natural dinoflagellate populations. The focus of this project is to unravel the interactions between parasitoids and dinoflagellates and the cellular and population levels to determine how parasitoids might be used to control HABs. I will accomplish this by: (1) studying the abundance of parasitoids and dinoflagellates of natural phytoplankton assemblages during bloom and non-bloom conditions in Cala Santanyí (Mallorca); (2) conducting a series of microfluidic experiments to study the biophysics, behaviors of and interactions between individual parasitoids, host cells, and healthy dinoflagellates; (3) modeling the interactions between dinoflagellates and parasitoids to determine the concentration of parasitoids necessary to control HABs along; and, (4) validating the model results using a series of microcosm experiments. By studying the biophysical and behavioral interactions between dinoflagellates and parasitoids at both individual- and population-based scales, the long-term goal of this project is to exploit these interactions as an effective, environmentally-friendly method to control HABs near the Balearic Islands and the Catalan coast.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAT DE LES ILLES BALEARS · PALMA DE MALLORCACoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union