Metabolomic analysis of the allelopathic interactions between marine planktonic microalgae

Diatoms are of essential importance for marine and terrestrial ecosystems, especially in bloom events. It is thus of high interest to unravel underlying mechanisms of allelopathic phytoplankton dynamics, particularly in bloom situations. So far, research focused on negative allelopathic effects and, if at all, allelochemicals involved in negative allelopathic effects were described. By choosing an untargeted, comparative GC/TOF-MS - based metabolomic approach with continuous monitoring of diatom cultures, this thesis aims at further characterizing diatom interactions in the context of allelopathy. The focus is set on the interaction of Skeletonema sp. with the co-occurring species T. weissflogii. Compared to previous studies, the identification of significant interaction-induced metabolomic responses was advanced by combining elaborate co-cultivation set-ups with GC/TOF-MS metabolomic profiling techniques. In this context, available MS libraries facilitated the identification of significant metabolites. ...