Diversity of Marine Algae in the Biosphere 2 Ocean

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Diversity of Marine Algae in the Biosphere 2Ocean

Red algae, Rhodophyta, is easily identified in the marine environment because it appears as a red color. There are many different species, originating from many different corners of the Earth. The ocean biome in the Biosphere 2 was constructed using raw seawater off the coast of Southern California, which contained many different unknown species of algae. During the construction of the biome, other known species of algae from various marine environments, Gulf of Mexico and Hawaii, were also introduced into the ocean. Research is continuing to be conducted on all various algae species in the Biosphere 2, to determine the diversity of the marine algae. Two red algae species, Haliptilon cubense and Jania adhaerens, are to be compared for their total biomass over a four year span (1999 to 2002).

The Biosphere 2 was created in 1980 as an experiment to sustain life in an enclosed world, but failed. Researchers from Columbia University changed the functionality, and the mission statement, of the Biosphere 2, so that research and knowledge could be furthered. The purpose of the Biosphere 2 is ??it has been transformed into an indispensable prototype apparatus for studies of the marine atmosphere-ocean-substratum system, and of the terrestrial soil-plant-atmosphere continuum? (Broecker, 1996).

Their new mission statement reads:

?To serve as a center for teaching, learning, and research about Earth and its systems. To catalyze interdisciplinary thinking and understanding about Earth and its future. To be a key center for Earth education and for outreach to industry, government and the general public. To focus public attention on the issues ...

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... Cambridge and New York.

Shaughnessy F. J. http://chapmanlab.lsu.edu/gulfshore/alga_project0.html

Taylor, W.R. 1960. Marine Algae of the Eastern Tropical and Subtropical Coasts of the Americas. University Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. pp. 870

Tsuda, Roy T. and Isabella A. Abbott. 1985. Collection, handling, preservation and logistics, pp. 67-68. In: Littler, M.M. and Littler, D.S. (eds.), Ecological Field Methods: Macroalgae. Handbook of Phycological Methods. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York. Via http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/algae/Alg-CoPr.htm

Figure 1, found from the website: http://chapmanlab.lsu.edu/alga_description/jania.html

Figure 2, found from the website: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-in/get_pr_image.pl?Haliptilon+cubense_R

Table 1 ? Taxonomically followed from the website: http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/reefalgae/Redskey201.htm

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