Algae

Sea lions and dolphins that swim off California’s central coast are dying. Toxic algae blooms off the state’s coast are believed to be stranding and even killing the marine animals at alarming rates, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Can the Government Change Social Media? | Gizmodo InterviewThe Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute has received over 1,000 reports of sick and dead marine mammals from June 8 through June 14, according to a recent report from the NOAA’s Fisheries…

Melosira arctica, one of the major algae species in the Arctic Ocean. Credit: Melanie Bergmann, CC BY-NC-ND Last summer, we traveled to the remote Arctic Hausgarten observatory area in the eastern Fram Strait (west of Svalbard, Norway) on a research ship. The samples we collected there included ice cores, sea water and ice algae from large packs of floating ice called ice floes. These form 1–2 meter thick "plates" of sea ice…

Swedish researchers have discovered that multicellularity in green algae arises not due to inherent benefits, but as a by-product of single-celled strategies to reduce environmental stress. The study contributes to understanding the evolution of complex life and the survival of key species like green algae. Credit: Charlie CornwallisBy studying green algae in Swedish lakes, a research team, led by Lund University in Sweden, has succeeded in identifying which environmental conditions promote multicellularity. The results…

A critical component of the food web in the Arctic is at risk. According to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Arctic ice algae has become infected with microplastics, threatening the creatures that feed on the algae. The new study shows that the algae found beneath the Arctic ice have much higher concentrations of microplastics than the surrounding seawater. Researchers say when the algae die, clumps of them carry the microplastics out to the deep sea, which could…

Picture a raft of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, and you’re probably imagining a pristine marriage of white and blue. But during summertime, below the surface, something much greener and goopier lurks. A type of algae, Melosira arctica, grows in large, dangling masses and curtains that cling to the underside of Arctic sea ice, mostly obscured from a bird’s eye view.Lower Drought Conditions In California | Extreme EarthThe algae, made up of long strings and clumps of single-celled organisms called diatoms, is an essential…

By Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) April 21, 2023On a Polarstern expedition in the Arctic, researchers led by biologist Melanie Bergmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute are investigating how much microplastic is in aggregates of the ice alga Melosira arctica and the seawater directly next to ice floes. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Mario HoppmannMelosira arctica has ten times higher concentration of plastic particles than surrounding seawater.The alga Melosira arctica,…

In the Atlantic Ocean, between the coasts of West Africa and the Caribbean, there’s a disjointed series of mats and clumps of brown, tangled algae known as sargassum seaweed. It’s supposed to be there. Or, at least, some of it is. In the Sargasso Sea—the only sea without a land border, bounded instead by four currents—sargassum offers critical habitat to marine life and is an integral part of the ecosystem.What Was Your First Experience with Super Mario Bros? | io9 InterviewBut in recent years, things have gotten off…

An enormous stretch of seaweed measuring 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) wide is set to bring stench, pests, and bacteria to the beaches of Florida and Mexico.The "Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt" is a massive bloom of brown algae that stretches from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the largest seaweed bloom in the world – weighing approximately 20 million tons – and is visible from outer space.This year's bloom is the biggest on record for the month of March, and it's expected to grow from here,…

A floating blob of seaweed 5,000 miles across, spanning nearly the whole width of the Atlantic Ocean, is headed for Florida’s Atlantic Coast. The sargassum algae, a brown, branching, stringy seaweed that can turn seawater mud-colored when present in large quantities, is likely to cause serious problems for the Sunshine State as well as the Caribbean and parts of Mexico, per multiple reports.In past sizable seaweed blooms, sargassum has clogged up beaches with hundreds of tons of sticky, matted algae. To make matters even…

Like all of its peers in the tech industry, Microsoft has a carbon pollution problem. The software giant’s emissions are on the rise, in spite of a pledge from the company to be carbon negative by 2030. This ticking clock explains Microsoft’s latest deal to address its environmental toll: It’s turning to Running Tide to offset some of its emissions via the ocean. Running Tide, which also works with Stripe and Shopify, aims to use this money to lock away massive quantities of carbon dioxide.…