Cyanobacteria abundance, cyanotoxin concentration, and water quality data for the upper San Francisco Estuary, California, USA: 2014-2019

The goal of these measurements was to quantify
Microcystis abundance and microcystin
concentration and associated water quality conditions during summer
blooms in the upper San Francisco Estuary in California, USA. Blooms
of harmful algae are a major ecological concern in the area because
harmful algae produce toxins and other metabolites, which
deteriorate water quality and negatively impact the aquatic
ecosystem. Our research team collected biological, physical, and
chemical data at 2-week to 4-week intervals during the summer and
fall from 2014 through 2019. Data included surface measurements of
Microcystis volume (area-based diameter) by
microscopy (flowCAM digital imaging flow cytometry) and subsurface
(1 m depth) measurements of Microcystis,
Aphanizomenon and
Dolichospermum cell abundance measured by
quantitative PCR, cyanotoxin concentration (total microcystins,
anatoxin a and saxitoxin) measured by protein
phosphatase inhibition assay or enzyme linked immunosorbent assay,
and a suite of water quality parameters (water temperature,
dissolved oxygen, nutrient concentration, water transparency,
specific conductance, turbidity, pH, and chlorophyll
a concentration). Details for the field
sampling and analytical methods are available in Lehman et al.
(2017). We also performed shotgun metagenomic analyses to
investigate biodiversity of cyanobacteria and other aquatic
microorganisms and all the DNA sequencing data are publicity
available (www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/; BioProject ID: PRJNA434758,
Kurobe et al. 2018, Lehman et al. 2021). During the study, we
experienced critically dry (2014 and 2015), below normal (2016 and
2018), and wet years (2017 and 2019), therefore data obtained in
this study provided a unique opportunity to assess impacts of
extreme conditions on the aquatic ecosystem (Kurobe et al. 2018,
Lehman et al. 2020).