In addition, a combination of grazing deterrence (Jiang et al., 2009, 2010) and allelopathy (Tang and Gobler, 2010) are thought to give this species a competitive advantage over other phytoplankton. C. polykrikoides and related Cochlodinium species are globally distributed (Kudela and Gobler, 2012) and have recently been observed in the coastal embayments of Long Island, NY (Gobler et al., 2008).