INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY

Vice Directors: Dr. Ho Van The, principal researcher
Dr. Hoang Xuan Ben, principal researcher

General facts and figures of 2021:

- Number of projects carried out: 13 national projects; 11 VAST projects, 08 ministerial and provincial projects; 14 IO projects; 03 projects under the Youth Research Program and 04 research projects under the Senior Research Program.
- Doctoral education: 03 students are under the PhD program at the Faculty of Marine Science and Technology (Graduate University of Science and Technology), hosted by the Institute. One has defended his thesis, 02 others are doing thematic research.
- Capacity building: 02 IO’s scientists study abroad (PhD program), 4 study at home (MSc program), 25 others completed the training program for department managers.
- Yearly budget: 18,022 million VND, of which 11,550 for funded projects, 6,472 for scientific contracts.
- Publication: 85 papers in international and national journals, conference proceedings and monographs.
- Conferences and workshops organized/ co-organized: 02
- International cooperation agreements signed: 01
- Outward and incoming visits: 0

NEW FINDING ON HABS TAXONOMY TO THE WORLD

Recently, a research team from the Department of Marine Plankton, Institute of Oceanography published a paper in the Journal of Phycology 57(3): 1059-1083 (ranked Q1 in the list of ISI articles of NAFOSTED) on research results with important discovery value in the taxonomy of microalgae for the world. Information on the genus Ostreopsis from Vietnamese waters and the redescription of the type species of Ostreopsis, O. siamensis, clearly defines the identity and the taxonomic and phylogenetic position of this species. The uncertainly about the identity of O. siamensis has been a source of confusion for plankton researchers for more than 100 years. The present results show that O. siamensis is a subtropical/tropical species and that the species reported as O. cf. siamensis from various temperate sites should be assigned to a separate presently undescribed species. Research results on O. siamensis with materials collected in Vietnam are recognized on the Algaebase website, www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=54506

Ostreopsis siamensis was first erected by Danish scientist, Johannes Schmidt in the southern part of Koh Chang, Gulf of Thailand in 1901 and 80 years later, Fukuyo (1981) found this species in Ryukyu Islands (Japan). Presently, scientists around the world have identified 11 species of the genus Ostreopsis. The different species have almost the same phenotype and the tabulation, which is widely used for morphological identification of dinoflagellates, is more or less similar in species of Ostreopsis. Therefore, a revision and redesciption of the species have to be based on both morphological and genetic analyses.

The questions raised were “Will the species of O. siamensis change its morphology after more than 100 years with changes in the environment and global warming; Is this species real or does it no longer exist in the marine environment?” Scientists could not find holotype materials in the Natural History Museums of Denmark and this has created much controversy in taxonomy.

Figures A-H. Strain of VNPQ216, Ostreopsis siamensis from Vietnamese waters was recognized as epitype (Nguyen-Ngoc L.  et al. 2021), deposited at Oceanographic Museum (Institute of Oceanography),  VNM Herbarium (Institute of Tropical Biology), and Natural History Museum of Denmark.

Morphological and genetic analyses of material collected from Con Dao Island, tidal beach of My Hoa (Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan), Nha Trang bay, Ghenh Rang (Quy Nhon) have revealed a species that is morphologicaly completely similar to the original description of Schmidt (1901), and the Vietnamese species from these localities all has the same genotype. However, redescription of a type species should ideally include material the type locality or localties nearby. Ostreopsis siamensis was described from the Thai island, Koh Chang, in the Gulf of Thailand (Schmidt 1901). The Vietnamese island, Phu Quoc, is located only a few hundred kilometres from the type locality. Wild material as well as cultures collected on this island were identified and redescribed as O. siamensis, and similar to material collected at Con Dao, My Hoa, Nha Trang, and Quy Nhon. Thus the present study provided a redesription of the type species of Ostreopsis and it also showed that this benthic dinoflagellate is a common and widely distributed species in Vietnamese waters.

This research results have resolved the controversy  in  species identification of Ostreopsis siamensis over the world for more than a century. The cultured strain, VNPQ218, is depicted as epitype.

Together with other published works on HAB forecasting and bio-oceanography, and climate change during past ten years, phytoplankton team of the Institute of Oceanography (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) have proved and affirmed their capacity in the field of phytoplankton research in the country .