1. Report on economic justification of the project : LIFE Stop CyanoBloomMaja Zupančič Justin, Gorazd Lakovič, Tinkara Rozina, Bojan Sedmak, Marko Gerl, 2017, final research report Abstract: The Annexe 17 of the Final Report of the project LIFE Stop CyanoBloom, presenting the “Report on economic justification of the project” is composed of 14 chapters. The first part of the report gives a general overview of the cyanobacteria and their blooms, and species and toxicity of cyanobacterial toxins. With a literature review, economic consequences of cyanobacterial blooms on human health, commercial fishery, tourism and recreation, and lake monitoring and management have been evaluated. The chapter on phytoplankton and bacterioplankton monitoring options presents the importance of the phytoplankton for the lake ecology and evaluation of the water quality status. Traditional phytoplankton monitoring approaches are compared to the new monitoring options applied in the project. The chapter in-lake cyanobacterial control options give a broad review of available in-lake rehabilitation and remediation options, which can be compared with the electrochemical oxidation technique presented in the following chapter and applied in the project. According to the results obtained during the pilot testing activities, a cost evaluation of the approach has been performed and presented in the report. The last chapter gathers open issues and proposals for the further work in this field.
Keywords: cyanobacteria, cyanotoxins, health risk
Published in DiRROS: 05.09.2024; Views: 104; Downloads: 249
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2. Innovative technology for cyanobacterial bloom control : LIFE Stop CyanoBloomMaja Zupančič Justin, Marko Gerl, Gorazd Lakovič, Bojan Sedmak, Tinkara Rozina, Neža Finžgar, Maja Čič, Mario Marinovič, Luka Teslić, Jošt Grum, Maša Čater, Tina Eleršek, Andrej Meglič, Andrey Yakuntsov, Lovro Pokorn, Tomaž Kralj, Matjaž Berčon, Branko Hamiti, 2017, final research report Abstract: Despite the efforts invested into measures to prevent water eutrophication, like prevention and treatment of point and dispersed discharges, the eutrophication still occurs. One of the unwanted consequences of eutrophic water state is the occurrence of excessive cyanobacterial blooms. Mass occurrence of cyanobacteria is a significant health risk related to surface waters in EU and worldwide since most of the cyanobacterial genera produce cyanotoxins. Besides toxicity, cyanobacterial blooms cause an increase in the turbidity of water and create taste and odour problems. All mentioned represents substantial economic losses in sectors like aquaculture, tourism, drinking water facilities and indirect losses due to increased healthcare expenditures and environmental degradation. It is, therefore, necessary to find appropriate solutions for rapid detection and also in-lake prevention of bloom occurrence despite, for example, existing high eutrophic conditions in the water body. The proposed project represents such a solution.
In the frame of the LIFE Stop CyanoBloom project, we have designed two solar powered robotic vessels for the in-lake detection and control of cyanobacterial proliferation. Each vessel is capable of three-dimensional localisation of cyanobacteria by measuring fluorescence of pigments involved in the process of photosynthesis. The vessels are additionally equipped with electrochemical cells using boron doped diamond electrodes fixed on board, producing short-lived hydroxyl radicals, which prevent cyanobacterial proliferation as well as cyanotoxins inactivation. Hydroxyl radicals cause different levels of damages to cyanobacterial cells as well as stress, that may also result in phage induced cyanobacterial lysis. Natural control of cyanobacterial density by lytic cyanophages is known for several years. The mixing of water during the electrolytic cell operation also increases the potential contacts of cyanobacteria with cyanophages, disturbs cyanobacterial buoyancy and generates additional nutrients for nontoxic phytoplankton population. Additional newly developed equipment of the vessel allows advanced automated navigation (automatic docking, avoiding obstacles, maintaining the position in windy conditions, etc.), sampling from different depths, real-time data transfer, statistical analysis and graphical presentation using the adequate software.
Keywords: cyanobacteria, cyanobacterial blooms, cyanotoxins, health risk
Published in DiRROS: 05.09.2024; Views: 87; Downloads: 665
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3. A European multi lake survey dataset of environmental variables, phytoplankton pigments and cyanotoxinsEvanthia Mantzouki, Špela Remec-Rekar, Tina Eleršek, 2018, original scientific article Abstract: Under ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic activity, which continuously challenge ecosystem resilience, an in-depth understanding of ecological processes is urgently needed. Lakes, as providers of numerous ecosystem services, face multiple stressors that threaten their functioning. Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are a persistent problem resulting from nutrient pollution and climate-change induced stressors, like poor transparency, increased water temperature and enhanced stratification. Consistency in data collection and analysis methods is necessary to achieve fully comparable datasets and for statistical validity, avoiding issues linked to disparate data sources. The European Multi Lake Survey (EMLS) in summer 2015 was an initiative among scientists from 27 countries to collect and analyse lake physical, chemical and biological variables in a fully standardized manner. This database includes in-situ lake variables along with nutrient, pigment and cyanotoxin data of 369 lakes in Europe, which were centrally analysed in dedicated laboratories. Publishing the EMLS methods and dataset might inspire similar initiatives to study across large geographic areas that will contribute to better understanding lake responses in a changing environment.
Keywords: biological pigments, cyanotoxins, ecology, hydrobiology, data, datasets
Published in DiRROS: 24.07.2024; Views: 180; Downloads: 250
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4. Cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of cyanobacterial and algal extracts-microcystin and retinoic acid contentMichal Bittner, Alja Štern, Marie Smutna, Klara Hilscherova, Bojana Žegura, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: In the last decade, it has become evident that complex mixtures of cyanobacterial bioactive substances, simultaneously present in blooms, often exert adverse effects that are different from those of pure cyanotoxins, and awareness has been raised on the importance of studying complex mixtures and chemical interactions. We aimed to investigate cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of complex extracts from laboratory cultures of cyanobacterial species from different orders (Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, Aphanizomenon gracile, Microcystis aeruginosa, M. viridis, M. ichtyoblabe, Planktothrix agardhii, Limnothrix redekei) and algae (Desmodesmus quadricauda), and examine possible relationships between the observed effects and toxin and retinoic acid (RA) content in the extracts. The cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of the extracts were studied in the human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line, using the MTT assay, and the comet and cytokinesis-block micronucleus (cytome) assays, respectively. Liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS) was used to detect toxins (microcystins (MC-LR, MC-RR, MC-YR) and cylindrospermopsin) and RAs (ATRA and 9cis-RA) in the extracts. Six out of eight extracts were cytotoxic (0.04–2 mgDM/mL), and five induced DNA strand breaks at non-cytotoxic concentrations (0.2–2 mgDM/mL). The extracts with genotoxic activity also had the highest content of RAs and there was a linear association between RA content and genotoxicity, indicating their possible involvement; however further research is needed to identify and confirm the compounds involved and to elucidate possible genotoxic effects of RAs.
Keywords: cyanobacteria, algae, extracts, complex mixtures, genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, retinoic acids, microcystins, cyanotoxins, chemical analysis
Published in DiRROS: 19.07.2024; Views: 215; Downloads: 156
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5. Distribution of toxigenic cyanobacteria in Alpine lakes and rivers as revealed by molecular screeningMaša Jablonska, Leonardo Cerasino, Adriano Boscaini, Camilla Capelli, Claudia Greco, Aleksandra Krivograd-Klemenčič, Ute Mischke, Nico Salmaso, Rainer Kurmayer, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: The increasing frequency of cyanobacteria blooms in waterbodies caused by ecosystem eutrophication could endanger human health. This risk can be mitigated by effective monitoring incorporating molecular methods. To date, most molecular studies on toxigenic cyanobacteria have been limited to microcystins (MCs), disregarding other cyanotoxins, to freshwater planktic habitats while ignoring benthic habitats, and to limited geographic areas (usually one or a few specific waterbodies). In this study, we used PCR-based methods including PCR product sequencing and chemical-analytical methods (LC-MS/MS) to screen many plankton (n = 123) and biofilm samples (n = 113) originating from 29 Alpine lakes and 18 rivers for their cyanotoxin production potential. Both mcyE (indicating MC synthesis) and anaC (indicating anatoxin (ATX) synthesis) gene fragments were able to qualitatively predict MC or ATX occurrence. The abundance of mcyE gene fragments was significantly related to MC concentrations in plankton samples (R2 = 0.61). mcyE gene fragments indicative of MC synthesis were most abundant in planktic samples (65 %) and were assigned to the genera Planktothrix and Microcystis. However, mcyE rarely occurred in biofilms of lakes and rivers, i.e., 4 % and 5 %, respectively, and were assigned to Microcystis, Planktothrix, and Nostoc. In contrast, anaC gene fragments occurred frequently in planktic samples (14 % assigned to Tychonema, Phormidium (Microcoleus), and Oscillatoria), but also in biofilms of lakes (49 %) and rivers (18 %) and were assigned to the genera Phormidium, Oscillatoria, and Nostocales. The cyrJ gene fragment indicating cylindrospermopsin synthesis occurred only once in plankton (assigned to Dolichospermum), while saxitoxin synthesis potential was not detected. For plankton samples, monomictic and less eutrophic conditions were positively related to mcyE/MC occurrence frequency, while oligomictic conditions were related to anaC/ATX frequency. The anaC/ATX frequency in biofilm was related to the lake habitats generally showing higher biodiversity as revealed from metabarcoding in a parallel study.
Keywords: cyanotoxins, planktic and benthic habitats, water quality monitoring, early warning, toxigenic cyanobacteria, European Alps
Published in DiRROS: 03.06.2024; Views: 385; Downloads: 260
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