Historical occurrences of marine micro-algal blooms in Indian peninsula: Probable causes and implications

Abstract

The Indian marine environment supports employment for over 200 million people, including revenue of nearly $7 billion per annum. However, ecological goods and services of the shallow coast and the marine environment of the Indian peninsula are being affected by recurrent blooms of microalgae. One hundred and six published literature, starting from the first report in 1908 to 2017, were reviewed to investigate the historical occurrences of marine microalgal blooms (MMBs) around the Indian peninsula. 154 MMBs comprising 24 genera and 7 classes were reported during the study period. Noctiluca (dinophyceae) and Trichodesmium (cyanophyceae) bloom contributed 34.4% and 31.8% of total blooms. PCA revealed that high sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity were significant driving forces for Trichodesmium blooms formation, while high nutrients (NO3-N, PO4-P, and SiO4-Si) and low salinity triggered prymnesiophyceae, raphidophyceae, bacillariophyceae and most of the dinophyceae blooms. Noctiluca blooms were linked with both eutrophication and the abundance of prey organisms. HABs were generally dinophyceae dominated and were associated with mass mortality of aquatic fauna, human intoxication, paralytic, and ciguatera shellfish poisoning and even death. Increasing SST and anthropogenic influences around the Indian peninsula could increase the occurrences of MMBs (including HABs) and the number of causative taxa. Proper safety measures such as routine monitoring of phycotoxin levels in the environment and local seafood are required to be put in place in other to protect the health of the public.