Monitoring of algicidal bacterium, Alteromonas sp. strain A14 in its application to natural Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooming seawater using fluorescence in situ hybridization.

The red tide of dinoflagellate, Cochlodinium polykrikoides has frequently occurred in coastal waters, causing severe damage to fisheries. In the present study, the algicidal bacterium Alteromonas sp. A14 isolated from the southern coast of Korea was applied to a red tide of C. polykrikoides in a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, the abundance of the strain A14 was monitored using fluorescence in situ hybridization. Inoculation of the A14 at a final cell density of 9.0 x 10(5) cells/ml caused a significant decrease in C. polykrikoides abundance from 1,830 to 700 cells/ml during 2 days, while abundances of harmless diatoms rapidly increased from 3 days. Abundances of both A14 and other bacteria increased to 1 day. After 1 day, with flagellate abundance increased, bacterial abundance decreased. Finally, algicidal bacterial abundance decreased to 3.5 x 10(4) cells/ml. In the biological control of harmful algal blooms, in addition to decrease in target algal abundance and not occurrence of other harmful blooms, decrease in abundance of utilized organism is also important. This study emphasizes the importance of monitoring the inoculated bacterium when applying bacterium to natural seawater.