Mesodinium rubrum red (Lohmann) Hamburger y Buddenbrock tides in the Gulf of California (Winter, 1998)

Abstract

During the winter of 1998 (from 28 January to 10 March) 13 samples from red tides of the photosynthetic protozoan Mesodinium rubrum were collected in the Gulf of California. In all the cases, the seawater temperature was recorded, which varied fro 20.3 to 23.2ºC. The salinity, disoolved oxygen, pH, nutrients concentrations, were determined in the blooms observed in the coasts of Sinaloa. The salinity varied between 34.71 to 35.25. The dissolved oxygen varied between 5.29 to 6.78 ml/l, and the pH varied from 8.16 to 8.27. The nitrate concentrations varied between 0.05 and 0.41 µM, meanwhile the nitrite has a low variation between 0.05 and 0.22 µM, showing a relation to M. rubrum abundance, which ranged from 254 to 19,993 cels.ml^-1. Mortality of jellyfish and fish was observed during the red tide presented in the southern part of the gulf.