Marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum producing paralytic shellfish toxins is responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). To investigate its temporal distributions in Chinhae Bay where PSP occurs annually, SYBR GreenⅠ based A. minutum-specific real-time PCR probe was developed on the LSU rDNA region. Assay specificity and sensitivity were tested against related species, and its specificity was further confirmed by sequencing of field-derived samples. Ten months field survey in 2008 (a total 100 surface water samples) by using the real-time PCR probe showed that A. minutum was detected at very low densities of 1-4 cells L-1 in May and June being spring in Chinhae Bay, Korea.

A bacterial strain SY-97 that showed algicidal activity against Cochlodinium polykrikoides was isolated from coastal water of Uljin (eastern coast of Korea) in August, 2005. The isolated strain was identified as Brachybacterium sp. by morphological and biological tests, and analysis of 16S rDNA sequence. The optimal culture conditions for the growth of strain SY-97 were 30℃, initial pH 7.0, and salinity 2.0%. From the result of cell culture insert experiment, Brachybacterium sp. SY-97 is assumed to produce secondary metabolites which have algicidal activity. When 10% culture filtrate of this strain was applied to C. polykrikoides (1.2 × 104 cells/㎖) cultures, 100% of C. polykrikoides cells was destroyed within 15 hours. The released algicides were heat-tolerant to 100℃ and stable in pH 6.0～10.0. These results suggest that Brachybacterium sp. SY-97 is potentially useful for controlling outbreaks of C. polykrikoides.

Pfiesteria and Pfiesteria-like organisms were reported to be linked to major fish kills (involving well over a billion fish) in North Carolina and Maryland estuaries on the U.S. east coast during the 1990s. Occurrences of these species have been recently reported from Korean waters including Chinhae Bay and the coast of Yeosu. In this study, the life cycle of Cryptoperidiniopsis brodyi and Pfiesteria piscicida were examined using DAPI staining. Their excystment and growth were stimulated directly by the addition of prey cells such as Rhodiminas salina. Amoeboid stages in C. brodyi and P. piscicida were never observed in culture, even after addition of filter-sterile fish mucus and tissue. The dominant life cycle stages consisted of motile flagellated zoospores and cysts. A typical dinoflagellate life cycle was demonstrated by direct observation and DAPI staining.

The effect of UV on the mortality rate of toxic dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae causing a red tide in the coastal area of south Korea was investigated in the batch and continuous-scale reactor equipped with ultraviolet irradiation-apparatus. Degussa P25 titanium oxide, a photocatalyst proved to be effective for the mortality of Amphidinium carterae supplied with photocatalyst and UV radiation were greater than 95% in 2 minutes of UV radiation and the rate were higher than that by UV-radiation without titanium dioxide in the batch and continuous-flow scale reactor. The mortality time of Amphidinium carterae increased with the cell density under UV-illumination in the batch scale reactor. The mortality rate in the density of 5.0×104 cells/mL at the same experimental condition was more than 90% in 4 minutes in the continuous flow scale reactor. The percentage of 99.9±0.1% of Amphidinium carterae in the density of 5.0×104 cells/mL was died in 20 minutes when the phytoplankton was illuminated with UV-radiation without photocatalyst.