News tagged with algal blooms

Robot monitors toxic red tides

A robotic device suspended under the ocean surface from a buoy off the New Hampshire coast is monitoring seawater for evidence of the red tide, clusters of microscopic plants that release toxins into fish ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Common fungicide wreaks havoc on freshwater ecosystems

Chlorothalonil, one of the world's most common fungicides used pervasively on food crops and golf courses, was lethal to a wide variety of freshwater organisms in a new study, University of South Florida researchers said ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 16, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Nutrient supply after algal bloom determines the succession of the bacterial population

Algal blooms can considerably interfere with summer holidays by the sea. In the coastal zone of temperate regions a spring algal bloom is not a sign of excessive nutrient input, but most of all a consequence ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 04, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Did Phosphorus Trigger Complex Evolution -- and Blue Skies?

(PhysOrg.com) -- The evolution of complex life forms may have gotten a jump start billions of years ago, when geologic events operating over millions of years caused large quantities of phosphorus to wash ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 10, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Outsmarting algae -- Scientist finds the turn-off switch

Algaecide is no crime. Consider that some strains of algae produce toxins lethal to wildlife, fish and plants. Even the less harmful varieties suck oxygen out of water, suffocating living creatures in lakes, ponds, pools ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New research could help predict red tide

(PhysOrg.com) -- Not far beneath the ocean's surface, tiny phytoplankton swimming upward in a daily commute toward morning light sometimes encounter the watery equivalent of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone: a ...

Biology /

created Feb 19, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Brown tide culprit sequenced: Genome of the first of algal bloom species

Algae play key roles in the global carbon cycle, helping sequester significant amounts of carbon. Some algal species can bloom, or become so numerous, that they discolor coastal waters and reduce the amount ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 21, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Climate change causes harmful algal blooms in North Atlantic: study

Warming oceans and increases in windiness could be causing of an abundance of harmful algal blooms in the North Atlantic Ocean and North Sea, according to new research.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 13, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Iron stimulates blooms of toxin-producing algae in open ocean, study finds

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of marine scientists has found that toxin-producing algae once thought to be limited to coastal waters are also common in the open ocean, where the addition of iron from natural or ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists Use Squid Ink to Draw its Jurassic Period Owner

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists digging in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in England have uncovered the fossilized remains of a prehistoric squid-like creature that lived in the Jurassic period around 150 million years ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Aug 28, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (9) | comments 0 weblog

Carbon, nitrogen link may provide new ways to mitigate pollution problems

A new study exploring the growing worldwide problem of nitrogen pollution from soils to the sea shows that global ratios of nitrogen and carbon in the environment are inexorably linked, a finding that may ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 21, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

NASA study finds Earth's lakes are warming

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, NASA researchers determined Earth's largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 23, 2010 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (14) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Vitamins identified as key nutrient which may promote harmful algal blooms in coastal waters

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harmful algal blooms, which negatively affect coastal ecosystems, public health, economies and fisheries around the world, may be promoted by vitamins B-1 and B-12 according to Stony Brook University scientists, ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 02, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cod has a key role in the whole Baltic Sea

A new investigation put in evidence the key role of cod as regulator of the whole Baltic Sea ecosystem. The study shows that when the cod population in the central Baltic increases, it spreads into larger ...

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Robot fish could monitor water quality

Nature inspires technology for an engineer and an ecologist teamed up at Michigan State University. They're developing robots that use advanced materials to swim like fish to probe underwater environments.

Electronics / Robotics

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (3) | comments 2

Algal bloom

An algal bloom is a rapid increase in the population of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Typically, only one or a small number of phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration of the water resulting from the high density of pigmented cells. Although there is no officially recognized threshold level, algae can be considered to be blooming at concentrations of hundreds to thousands of cells per milliliter, depending on the severity. Algal bloom concentrations may reach millions of cells per milliliter. Algal blooms are often green, but they can also be yellow-brown or red, depending on the species of algae.

Bright green blooms are a result of blue-green algae, which are actually bacteria (cyanobacteria). Blooms may also consist of macroalgal, not phytoplankton, species. These blooms are recognizable by large blades of algae that may wash up onto the shoreline. "Black water" is a dark discoloration of sea water, first described in the Florida Bay in January 2002.

For more information about Algal bloom, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.