Occurrence of microcystins along the Guadiana estuary

Blooms of toxic cyanobacteria develop regularly during summer and early autumn in the Guadiana River (South of Iberian Peninsula). Microcystis aeruginosa, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, Oscillatoria spp. and Anabaena spp. have been identified in previous studies as the main toxic cyanobacteria present. With the closure of the Alqueva dam and its new policy of water retention, the present project focused on the effect of these new hydrological conditions to toxic cyanobacteria bloom formations in the Guadiana estuary. This article shows data collected from three sampling stations located along the estuary during the spring of 2002. Physical and chemical parameters (temperature, salinity, turbidity and nutrients (dissolved nitrate, silicate and phosphate)) and biologi-cal characteristics of the water (chlorophyll a and phytoplankton composition) were evaluated, as well as microcystin (MC) content in particulate material using HPLC-PDA. Microcystis sp. was the dominant toxic cyanobacteria in the collected water samples. Results suggest the existence of a longi-tudinal gradient in toxin content directly related to the development of temperature, salinity and nutritional ratio gradients along the estuary, and indirectly related to the turbidity of the water. At least five MC variants were observed and quantified as MC-LR equivalents (MC-LR Equiv.). The total MC concentrations in particulate material varied from 0.0 to above 1.0 µg MC-LR Equiv.·L-1, with higher values always observed at the freshwater station. Finally, higher dissolved silica concentrations were found in the water column when compared to results from previous years. These differences reflect changes in the Guadiana ecohydrological status which are probably related to the Alqueva dam cons-truction