Ciguatera poisoning (CP) is the most common form of phycotoxin-borne seafood poisoning globally, affecting thousands of people on an annual basis. It most commonly occurs in residential fish of coral reefs, which consume toxin-laden algae, detritus, and reef animals. The class of toxins that cause CP, ciguatoxins (CTXs), originate in benthic, epiphytic dinoflagellates of the genera, Gambierdiscus and Fukuyoa, which are consumed by herbivores and detritivores that facilitate food web transfer. A number of factors have hindered adequate environmental monitoring and seafood surveillance for ciguatera including the low concentrations in which the toxins are found in seafood causing illness (sub-ppb), a lack of knowledge on the toxicity equivalence of other CTXs and contribution of other benthic algal toxins to the disease, and the limited availability of quantified toxin standards and reference materials. While progress has been made on the identification of the dinoflagellate taxa and toxins responsible for CP, more effort is needed to better understand the dynamics of toxin transfer into reef food webs in order to implement a practical monitoring program for CP. Here, we present a conceptual model that utilizes empirical field data (temperature, Gambierdiscus cell densities, macrophyte cover) in concert with other published studies (grazing rates and preference) to produce modeling outputs that suggest approaches that may be beneficial to developing monitoring programs: 1) targeting specific macrophytes for Gambierdiscus and toxin measurements to monitor toxin levels at the base of the food web (i.e., toxin loading); and 2) adjusting these targets across sites and over seasons. Coupling this approach with other methodologies being incorporated into monitoring programs (artificial substrates; FISH probes; toxin screening) may provide an “early warning” system to develop strategic responses to potential CP flare ups in the future.

雪卡中毒 (CP) 是全球最常见的藻毒素海鲜中毒形式，每年影响数千人。它最常见于珊瑚礁的栖息鱼类，这些鱼类以富含毒素的藻类、碎屑和珊瑚礁动物为食。引起 CP 的一类毒素，即雪卡毒素 (CTX)，起源于甘比尔鞭毛虫属和福叶甲属的底栖附生甲藻，它们被食草动物和食碎屑动物消耗，促进食物网转移。许多因素阻碍了对雪卡毒素进行充分的环境监测和海鲜监测，包括引起疾病的海鲜中毒素的浓度较低（亚 ppb）、缺乏对其他 CTX 的毒性等效性以及其他底栖生物的贡献的了解藻类毒素对疾病的影响，以及量化毒素标准和参考材料的可用性有限。虽然在鉴定导致 CP 的甲藻类群和毒素方面取得了进展，但仍需要付出更多努力来更好地了解毒素转移到珊瑚礁食物网的动态，以便实施实用的 CP 监测计划。在这里，我们提出了一个概念模型，该模型利用经验现场数据（温度、甘比尔细胞密度、大型植物覆盖度）与其他已发表的研究（放牧率和偏好）相结合，产生建模输出，提出可能有利于制定监测计划的方法： 1) 针对甘比尔盘属的特定大型植物和毒素测量，以监测食物网底部的毒素水平（即毒素负荷）；2) 跨地点和跨季节调整这些目标。将这种方法与纳入监测计划的其他方法（人工底物、FISH 探针、毒素筛查）相结合，可能会提供一个“早期预警”系统，以针对未来潜在的 CP 爆发制定战略应对措施。