Reynaldo Patino, PhD (Former Employee)

The Jim Bertram Lake System consists of several stream impoundments within the City of Lubbock, Texas (USA). Baseflow in the upstream reach is dominated by nitrogen-rich-treated wastewater. While toxic blooms of Prymnesium parvum have occurred in this system for ∼2 decades during fall or winter-spring, little is known about water quality variables that facilitate blooms or the alga’s

Prymnesium parvum is a euryhaline, toxin-producing microalga. Although its abundance in inland waters and growth potential in the laboratory is reduced at high salinity (>20), the ability of inland strains to adjust their growth after long-term residence in high salinity is uncertain. An inland strain of P. parvum maintained at salinity of 5 in modified artificial seawater medium (ASM-5)...

Introductions of dreissenid mussels in North America have been a significant concern over the last few decades. This study assessed the distribution of synthetic organic compounds (SOCs) in the food web of Lake Mead, Nevada/Arizona, USA and how this distribution was influenced by the introduction of invasive quagga mussels. A clear spatial gradient of SOC concentrations in water was...

Eurasian zebra and quagga mussels were likely introduced to the Laurentian Great Lakes via ballast water release in the 1980s, and their range has since expanded across the US, including some of their southernmost occurrences in Texas. Their spread into the state has resulted in a need to revise previous delimitations of suitable dreissenid habitat. We therefore assessed invasion risk in...

Intermittent rivers are becoming more ecologically stressed worldwide. Flow cessation occurs naturally and spatiotemporally in these systems and anthropogenic activities such as wastewater discharges can have considerable impacts. Public entities mostly monitor water quality in permanent streams, leading to insufficient monitoring of intermittent streams and consequently to their...

Golden alga Prymnesium parvum Carter is a euryhaline, ichthyotoxic haptophyte (Chromista). Because of its presumed coastal/marine origin where SO42- levels are high, the relatively high SO42- concentration of its brackish inland habitats, and the sensitivity of marine chromists to sulfur deficiency, this study examined whether golden alga growth is sensitive to SO42- concentration...

Sex determination is the first step toward the establishment of phenotypic sex in most vertebrates. Aquatic poikilotherms such as teleost fishes exhibit a high diversity of sex-determination mechanisms and gonadal phenotypes that are remarkably plastic and responsive to a variety of environmental factors (e.g., water temperature, pH, salinity, photoperiod, population density). This...

Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) are widely used around the globe. While generally toxic to phototrophs, organic phosphorus in glyphosate can become available to glyphosate-resistant phytoplankton and contribute to algal bloom development. Few studies have examined the effects of GBH on growth of eukaryotic microalgae and information for the toxic bloom-forming haptophyte, Prymnesium...

1. We examined riverine desert fish assemblages in the Chihuahuan Desert, USA at multiple spatial scales of similarity to assess long-term changes to assemblage distinctiveness, identify individual species responsible for changes, and determine the importance of geographic context and species resolution in interpreting patterns of change. 2. We used a well-documented historical data set...

ebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga mussels (Dreissena bugensis) were likely introduced from Ponto-Caspian Eurasia to the Laurentian Great Lakes inadvertently via ballast water release in the 1980s and have since spread across the US, including Texas. Their spread into the state, including reservoirs in both Brazos River and Colorado River basins, has resulted in a need to...

This study examined the ability of acidic and neutral/alkaline fractions of a methanolic extract from giant reed (Arundo donax) and of two of its constituents, gramine and skatole, to inhibit growth of the ichthyotoxic golden alga (Prymnesium parvum) in batch culture. For this study, growth suppression was defined as inhibition of maximum cell density, algicidal activity as early...

Salinity (5–30) effects on golden alga growth were determined at a standard laboratory temperature (22 °C) and one associated with natural blooms (13 °C). Inoculum-size effects were determined over a wide size range (100–100,000 cells ml−1). A strain widely distributed in the USA, UTEX-2797 was the primary study subject but another of limited distribution, UTEX-995 was used to evaluate...