The actual state of the study of harmful algal blooms in Mexico

Abstract

This review presents an analysis of the state of knowledge of harmful algae studies in the marine environment in Mexico, in order to evaluate how we can optimize the available resources to study these events, identify unattended issues, and propose improvements in monitoring and/or research programs that could help to further understand the complexity of HAB in our coasts. An exhaustive bibliographic revision, from 1940 to 2011, was done consulting specialized data analyses, conference meetings, and specialized books and manuals. The number of researchers and institutions involved in HAB (harmful algal blooms) studies has increased significantly during the last decades, which is reflected in the number and quality of publications. However most of the existing HAB reports are based on sporadic sampling and short-term research programs. Monitoring programs and research activities have been focused in only a few HAB species; many toxic and harmful microalgal species have not been considered. To date, there is no laboratory with the capacity and techniques to analyze all the phycotoxins detected in Mexican coasts. Also, many research areas have not been attended adequately in Mexico such as cyst studies, allelophaty, exotic species, effect of climate change, use of molecular tools and teledetection, socioeconomic analyses, and mitigation strategies among others. This review shows that there has been a significantly improvement in the study of HAB in Mexico. However the studies are still addressed under an individual and disperse way and lack coordination. Greater achievements would be obtained if we concentrate the efforts of researchers and institutions were coordinated in order to optimize the available resources for HAB studies.