Responses of the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa to iron and humic substances

Iron is an essential element to marine biota. Different types of dissolved organic matter (DOM), such as humic substances have impacts on the marine coastal waters iron chemistry. The aim of the study was to examine how the presence of humic Substances (both aquatic and sedimentary) may affect iron bioavailability to the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa Kutzing incubated on standard and modified mineral BG-I I media. The final iron concentrations in the growth media ranged from 0.1 to 100 mu M. The results demonstrate that both the growth rate and the concentration of chlorophyll a in cultures of M. aeruginosa are limited by insufficient (< 10 mu M) Fe concentrations. The addition of aquatic humic substances in the presence of iron in concentrations < 0.1 mu M increased the optical density 25-fold. and the production of chlorophyll a 15-fold as compared with the cultures exposed to iron only at the same concentration. Sedimentary humic acids in the presence of iron at a concentration of 10 mu M reduced the growth and production of chlorophyll a by 50% as compared to the cultures exposed to iron only at the same concentration. Possible mechanisms of humic substances - metal ion - alga interactions are discussed. It is suggested that aquatic humic substances could be of great importance in the formation of cyanobacteria blooms. (C) 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.