Algal Blooms and Their Effects
Over the past years, due to warming waters, a toxic kind of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia has been blooming. This toxic algae affects sea life, especially marine mammals such as sea lions, which die of brain disease after feeding on this algae. This research paper will provide the reader with a conclusion in respect to what causes algal blooms and how we can prevent them.
Pseudo-nitzschia is a type of algae that produces a very strong neurotoxin called Domoic Acid, which can accumulate in many types of marine animals causing either death or severe illness. Humans that consume the infected animals can be affected as well, and as a result risk getting Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning, which is an illness that can cause permanent short-term memory loss, severe brain damage, or even death in some cases.
There are 12 species of Pseudo-nitzschia that produce domoic acids, which are located all over the world. Pseudo-nitzschia can grow in almost any surroundings. Since it’s able to withstand salinity levels as low as 6 and as high as 48 along with its ability to survive under temperature as low as 5 and as high as 30 degrees Celsius.
This toxic algae has been proliferating extremely rapidly over the past years. One of the reasons of this is warming waters. Warming waters is a phenomenon that has been increasing significantly over the past 20 years. The main reason that this is happening is because of global warming: Since planet Earth gets warmer, its oceans get warmer too.
As certain types of pollution damages our atmosphere, our natural protection from the sun weakens and as a result the Earth gets warmer with time, impacting the temperature of our seas. The unfortunate results of global warming and the co...
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...the algal blooms.
In conclusion, the cause of these algal blooms is the waters that are getting warmer and the excess of nutrients in the water. It can be prevented by creating laws or by doing modifications to the animals’ habitat.
Work cited:
Los Angeles Times, altered oceans: sentinels under attack. July 31, 2006. By Kenneth R. Weiss
“Pseudo-nitzschia” by Thessen, Anne http://diatoms.lifedesks.org/pages/990
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “harmful algal blooms” 24 July 2012.
Monterey bay aquarium research institute: “Pseudo-nitzschia Toxins” by Jennifer Shin, 1999. http://www.mbari.org/staff/conn/botany/diatoms/jennifer/toxin.htm
Department of Primary Industries “What Causes Algal Blooms?” 24 September 2009 http://www.water.nsw.gov.au/Water-Management/Water-quality/Algal-information/What-causes-algal-blooms/What-causes-algal-blooms/default.aspx
Dinoflagellates are one of the four main types of phytoplankton, which are photosynthetic, single celled and free living organisms in the ocean. Dinoflagellates cause the Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) also known as the red tide effect (Hackett et al 2004). Toxicity persisting at upper levels of the food chain is detected in them from the ones which are toxic, but not all such blooms are toxic. Enhanced detection capabilities may in part contribute to observed high frequency and severity of toxic blooms. As they are also important in the health of coral reefs their study has gained significant interest. Species are often selected for genome sequencing based on their importance as a model organism or relevance to human health, such as the HAB case.
Nitrogen and nitrates relate to Hypoxia via the process of eutrophication. Since Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient in most waters, the added input of nitrate causes massive growth in algae. The algae rapidly consume all available N, and once the nutrient is limited again, the alga dies en masse. As the alga decomposes, oxygen is depleted in the water. This lowers dangerously lowers the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, which harms living organisms in the area. Small organisms and organisms that are immobile or unable to escape low-oxygen areas are particularly vulnerable. Hypoxia and resulting “dead zones” are harmful to local fishing and shrimping industries and algal blooms hurt the tourism industry. Hypoxia has lead to a decrease of about 25% in the brown shrimp habitat, forcing shrimping operations further offshore. As the hypoxia issue continues to grow, negative human effects will only increase. Since nitrate runoff from ag. has been proven to be the dominant source of hypoxia, policies could be enacted to effectively deal with “point-source” pollution. This makes enacting environmental policy more easily adapted, possibly included in past policy such as the Clean Water Act.
The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary with six major tributaries, the James, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Patuxent, the York, and the Rappahannock Rivers, feeding into the bay from various locations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (Chemical Contaminants in the Chesapeake Bay – Workshop Discussion 1). These areas depend on the Bay as both an environmental and an economic resource. Throughout the last 15 years the Chesapeake Bay has suffered from elevated levels of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater treatment plants, farmland, air pollution, and development all lead to reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, which harm fish, crabs, oysters and underwater grasses (Key Commission Issues 1). There are other types of pollution in the bay such as toxic chemicals, but because nutrient pollution is the most significant and most widespread in the Bay its effects are the most harmful to fisheries. Nitrogen and phosphorous fuel algal blooms which cloud the water and block sunlight from reaching underwater grass beds that provide food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue crabs, and other species (Blankenship 11-12). Algae plays a vital role in the food chain by providing food for small fish and oysters. However, when there is an overabundance of algae it dies, sinks to the bottom of the Bay, and decomposes in such a manner that depletes the oxygen levels of the Bay (11). The reduced oxygen levels in the Bay reduce the carrying capacity of the environment and these “dead areas” sometimes kill off species that can not migrate to other areas of the Bay, such as oysters (11). Increased abundance of algal blooms also led to the overabundance of harmful and toxic algae species and microbes such as the microbe Pfiesteria, which was responsible in 1997 for eating fish alive and making dozens of people sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be contracted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species.
...oceans. Anthropogenic systems such as the combustion of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution have greatly increased the rate of acidification to levels where negative impacts ensue. Negative impacts occur both to marine organisms that rely on certain water conditions to maintain vital functions and the environment which is damaged by highly acidic waters. There is great variation in the acidity of each of the oceans, differences caused by the chemical composition of the ocean and biogeography. Understanding of the potential impacts of ocean acidification is relatively new to the scientific community and therefore little is known on how to counteract anthropogenic influences. Although reducing the amount of carbon dioxide produced will in turn reduce the lowering of the oceans acidity levels and reduce negative impacts on the environment and marine organisms.
Eutrophication is a concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Eutrophication is caused by excessive amounts of nutrients. Excessive nutrients in the bay have negative affects on the bay's ecosystem. The extra nutrients make the environment unbalanced. The extra nutrients cause a chain reaction that depletes oxygen and kills most of the organisms in that area. This is what is known as a dead zone.
The Chesapeake Bay has faced an excessive amount of pollution over the past century. The water in the bay has become so highly polluted that It is capable of causing harm to humans coming in direct contact with the water. Although algae serves a vital role in the bay’s ecosystem, it also creates a problem that is causing a large amount of the problem.
The agriculture industries have affected the marine life due to eutrophication. Eutrophication occurs when human activity water because of the chemicals, nitrogen and phosphorus which run off into the water. Eutrophication results in algal bloom. An algal bloom forms when lots of nitrogen and phosphorus are set inside a body of water which results in an excess amount of algae in lakes, oceans, or streams. The waters can not take in a lot of algae because in can affect the habitat of the animals. It can also affect the population of the sea animals.
Global warming was the main reason for the occurrence. The water of the Gulf and Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean were h...
The lakes which have small algae propagation are called oligotrophic lakes. Accordingly the lakes which have large algae propagation are called eutrophic lakes. There are many factors to determine the algae propagation in a lake such as temperature, light, depth, size of the lake and nutrients from the surrounding environment, etc. In fact the Great Lakes were all oligotrophic lakes before industrialization. The factors such a size, depth and climate would keep the lakes cool and clear for a long-term. There is only a small amount of fertilizer and organic matters decompose from forest areas in the lakes at that time. Due to reduction of vegetation and thermal pollution, the temperature of many tributaries of the lake has been increased. Other than that highly concentrated city and agriculture makes a lot of nutrients and organic matter, such as inorganic phosphorus detergents and fertilizers, flowing into the lake increased nutrient content. In fact the increasing nutrients stimulate the growth of green plants such as algae. The plant will decompose after death and decomposition process consumes dissolved oxygen in the water. As a result some fish will died from lack of oxygen and the green plants will experience a highly growth resulting in the cloudy water which means increasing eutrophication process. Lake Erie has the highest biomass yield mainly because it is the shallowest water, the highest temperature of the lake so that it is the first and most serious eutrophication lake of the Great Lakes. The other reason is that the development of agriculture and the city in the earlier period reached a higher level. About 1/3 of the population of the Great Lakes area lives in Lake Erie region. This leads to the highly higher flow of contaminants to Lake Erie than any other lakes. It is generally agreed that Lake Erie was dying In Canada and the United States. Water polluted warning signs are visible
Some studies have found “that atmospheric CO2 concentration is approximately 383 parts per million by volume (ppmv), a level not seen in at least 650,000 years, and it is projected to increase by 0.5% per year throughout the 21st century.” (Guinotte) “This is because…the ocean absorbs about a third of fossil fuel emissions, but this amount is likely to increase to 90% in the future.” (Bralower) As a result, “the chemistry of the world's oceans is changing at a rate not seen for 65 million years, with far-reaching implications for marine biodiversity and food security, according to a new United Nations study...” (Knight) “…This change is cause for serious concern [for] many marine organisms…, [because they] may not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive these changes.” (Guinotte)
"Ocean Pollution." MarineBio Conservation Society ~ Marine Biology, Ocean Life Conservation, Sea Creatures, Biodiversity, Research... Web. 19 May 2014.
These results agree with the hypothesis that our “untouched and super-productive world” is affecting marine life ecosystems (Vannela, 2012). All of these results combined confirm the overall hypothesis that pollution is getting worse in the ocean and more marine life ecosystems are being affected, but there
...Dennison, W. C., Duarte, C. M., Fourqurean, J. W., Heck, K. L., & Williams, S. L. (2006). A global crisis for seagrass ecosystems.Bioscience, 56(12), 987-996.
life. It is a good thing. Algal blooms include sea scum, whale food, and sea sawdust. Algal blooms are bundles of fine threads, rusty brown, they have a fishy smell, and are common in August through December -.