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¹ Institute for Marine Biology, Dobrota b.b., 85330 Kotor, Montenegro
² BIO-ICT Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics, Cetinjska br. 2, 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v17_5_05 Viewed : 4339 - Downloaded : 3555 The distribution of toxic and potentially toxic phytoplankton species in relation to environmental factors was investigated from November 2014 to April 2015 in Boka Kotorska Bay, in the south –eastern part of the Adriatic Sea. The RDA analysis of environmental parameters showed that the system is mostly temperature-driven. The phytoplankton community was mainly composed of diatoms and less with dinoflagellates. Pseudo-nitzschia was the dominant diatom, present in 88.40 % of samples, with a maximum (of 1.85 × 105 cells/l). Among toxic dinoflagellates, frequent were Dinophysis acuminata (with frequency of 33.33%), D. fortii (with frequency of 23.19%) and Prorocentrum cordatum (with frequency of 21.74%). The RDA analysis showed that diatoms correlated slightly positively with nutrients and negative correlation was recorded with temperature and salinity. Dinoflagellates showed strong positive association, indicating a positive correlation with oxygen concentration, chl a, SiO4- and NO3- concentrations and negative correlation with temperature and salinity. Keywords : Harmful phytoplankton, spatial distribution, Boka Kotorska Bay