Journal article
Research note: Identity of the Qingdao algal bloom
F Leliaert, X Zhang, N Ye, EJ Malta, AH Engelen, F Mineur, H Verbruggen, O De Clerck
Phycological Research | WILEY | Published : 2009
Abstract
In early July 2008, news agencies worldwide reported on a vast algal bloom that was threatening the upcoming Olympic sailing events in Qingdao, China. The identity of the culpable alga, however, remained undiscussed. We have identified the alga that caused the bloom by means of morphological and molecular data, including sequence data of the plastid encoded large subunit ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase gene (rbcL) and the nuclear encoded rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. The bloom-forming alga falls within the morphological limits of the green seaweed Ulva prolifera O.F. Müller ('Enteromorpha prolifera (O.F. Müller) J. Agardh') but our phylogenetic analyses show that it fo..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Maurice Hoffmann (Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Flanders) and the Secretary-General of the Department of Environment, Nature and Energy (Flemish Administration) for providing the algal samples. We thank Caroline Vlaeminck, Sofie D'hondt and Licinia Gouveia for help with generating the sequence data. FL and HV are indebted to the Research Foundation, Flanders for postdoctoral fellowship grants. EM and AHE acknowledge a postdoctoral fellowship grant from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT).