tagged w/ Algae Bloom
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Red tide, an algae bloom toxic to shellfish and fin fish, is already rampant in the waters off the South Fork of Long Island, having reappeared for the sixth year in a row and over a month earlier than years past, according to Stony Brook Southampton professor Dr. Chris Gobler and Peconic Baykeeper Kevin McAllister.
The term red tide is misleading, because discolourations of the water may be brown, orange, purple or yellow, as well as red. These discolourations are caused by dense concentrations of the microscopic plants of the sea, the so-called phytoplankton.
Already visible in the Shinnecock and Peconic bays, including Noyac Bay off Sag Harbor, according to Dr. Gobler the red tide first appeared around July 20, whereas previously the algae has bloomed in late August and early September.
“The organism has been present for some time, but we do not know why it has become so prominent in recent years,” said Dr. Gobler. “We believe the warmer-than-usual summer has been responsible for its early arrival.”
Hundreds of thousands of dead fish are washing ashore, possibly as a result of low dissolved oxygen levels in the water caused by hot summer temperatures all up and down the east coast of the United States and elsewhere this summer.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE: http://morichesdaily.com/2010/08/red-tide-rampant-south-shore-long-island/Red tide, an algae bloom toxic to shellfish and fin fish, is already rampant in the... more
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The potentially toxic bloom, covering 377,000 sq km, could pose a risk to marine life in the region, warn scientists. A lack of wind and prolonged high temperatures had triggered the largest bloom since 2005.
The affected area stretches from Finland in the north to parts of Germany and Poland in the south.
The image, captured earlier this month, was recorded by a camera on the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite.
Researchers monitoring the spread of the blue-green algae said such blooms had spread over the Baltic Sea each summer for decades.
They added that fertilizers from surrounding agricultural land were being washed into the sea and exacerbating the problem.
This has led to a process called eutrophication, in which the additional nutrients stimulate rapid growth of phytoplankton - microscopic free-floating marine plants.
This accelerated growth also reduces the amount of oxygen available to other plant and animal species in the affected area; raising fears that it could destabilize fragile marine ecosystems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10740097The potentially toxic bloom, covering 377,000 sq km, could pose a risk to marine life... more
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NASA is taking to the skies to encourage a new generation of scientists to study the earth.
The agency is hoping its new Student Airborne Research Program (SARP), a six-week session that includes research aboard a DC-8 flying laboratory, will get young people excited about solving problems like warming oceans, rising carbon dioxide levels and new pollutants in the air.
In recent years, American students haven't exactly been flocking to the field.
But if a recent pair of flights in California is any indication, SARP could help turn that around
Just minutes after the DC-8 takes off on its second SARP flight from NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., more than a dozen students are hard at work on three different experiments to be conducted in what is scheduled to be a six-hour flight.
As the plane flies low over the inland valleys of central California, Kamil Armaiz-Nolla, 29, and Daniel Tkacik, 23, work with several other students on an air-sampling experiment. A senior scientist from the University of California, Irvine, oversees their work, but doesn't interfere.
Every minute or so, Armaiz-Nolla twists open a valve that sends a sample of air from outside the plane into a stainless steel canister the size of an overgrown cocktail shaker.
The experiment will measure gases from dairy farms a thousand feet below. Cows belch up a lot of methane. And the process used to prepare their feed can raise levels of ozone, another greenhouse gas.NASA is taking to the skies to encourage a new generation of scientists to study the... more
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A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called "the blob." It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska's northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy. When it touched floating ice, it looked almost black.
Test results released Thursday showed the blob wasn't oil, but a plant — a massive bloom of algae. While that may seem less dangerous, a lot of people are still uneasy. It's something the mostly Inupiat Eskimo residents along Alaska's northern coast say they could never remember seeing before.
Algal blooms are a common and often menacing event along many U.S. coastlines. Some strains are toxic and can close beaches and poison seafood, posing a hazard to consumers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a forecasting system for the Gulf of Mexico to warn of harmful Florida blooms. On Thursday, on the other side of the continent, U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, urged NOAA to direct at least $500,000 to assess a disastrous red tide — a form of algal bloom. "The state of Maine is currently besieged by the most virulent red tide event ever recorded in the region," Snowe wrote. "As a result of this outbreak, virtually the entire coast of our state has been closed to the harvest of clams, mussels, ocean quahogs, and other shellfish."
While Alaskans may find the algal blob unusual if not frightening, scientists say that algal blooms are nothing new in Arctic Ocean waters, though the blob itself might be a little weird. Brenda Konar, a marine biology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said algal outbreaks can and do occur even in icy Arctic waters. It just takes the right combination of nutrients, light and water temperature, she said. "Algae blooms," she says. "It's sort of like a swimming pool that hasn't been cleaned in a while." The blob, Konar said, is a microalgae made up of "billions and billions of individuals." "We've observed large blooms in the past off Barrow although none of them at all like this," Barry Sherr, an Oregon State University professor of oceanography, said in an e-mail. "The fact that the locals say they've never seen anything like it suggests that it might represent some exotic species which has drifted into the region, perhaps as a result of global change. For the moment that's just a guess."
So far in Alaska, nothing suggests the Chukchi Sea blob is toxic, although the Coast Guard's Hasenauer said toxicity tests were planned. In any case, virtually no commercial seafood production comes from the waters along Alaska's northern coast, but residents do fish, hunt whales and harvest other animals as part of a traditional subsistence lifestyle. In the meantime, the blob for the most part is staying away from the shoreline and slowly drifting farther and farther away.A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright... more
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1) Use algae to produce oxygen and Ethanol. 2) Feed oxygen to coal plant - get CO2 in return. 3) Feed C02 to algae to get more oxygen and Ethanol. 4) Profit - ethanol costs $1/gallon.1) Use algae to produce oxygen and Ethanol. 2) Feed oxygen to coal plant - get CO2 in... more
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Part emergency room, part rehab facility, and part research lab, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California means the difference between life and death for sick and injured ocean animals. NOVA takes you inside this very special ER to witness the efforts of a renowned team of wildlife veterinarians as they fight to save their animal patients as well as to uncover the cause of a mysterious neurological illness plaguing marine mammals like California sea lions and harbor seal pups.
Not only are these animal patients endearing, they are also sending us an urgent message about the health of our oceans.Part emergency room, part rehab facility, and part research lab, the Marine Mammal... more
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