ABSTRACT
We examined the survival rate of Cochlodinium polykrikoides after yellow loess addition and conducted culture experiments to investigate the possibility that red tides may be caused by C. polykrikoides individuals that are precipitated when loess is added. At least 15% of the C. polykrikoides cells that precipitated to the bottom layer either by the addition of loess or no addition survived for 1 week at all growth phases, rather than disappearing immediately after precipitating. However, no live cells were observed after 20 days, regardless of phase or loess addition. In the exponential phase, the number of C. polykrikoides cells increased to >2886 cells ml-1 after loess was added. However, in the stationary phase, the number of cells did not increase until 18 days. In the exponential phase, those C. polykrikoides that survived precipitation caused by scattering loess on cultures did not appear to have the ability to cause red tides again because of the short red tide periods in the field, long lag time after loess addition, and low survival rate after loess addition.