Algae (phytoplankton) to cope well in climate change

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2015/algae-300615

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Algae to cope well in climate change[/font]

[font size=4]Marine algae with a key role in supporting life on Earth may be better equipped to deal with climate change than expected, research shows.[/font]

[font size=3]Scientists investigated the likely future impact of changing environmental conditions on ocean phytoplankton, a microscopic plant that forms the basis of all the oceans’ food chains.

Phytoplankton is important for absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while generating much of the oxygen needed to sustain life on Earth

…

The finding suggests that populations of the algae will adapt more to the varied conditions expected in future than was previously thought based on experiments at stable conditions.

….[/font]

This article was published on Jun 30, 2015[/font]

[pscot]

1. They've had more practice

than newbies like ourselves.

[mackdaddy]

2. Not all Algae is the good kind though

Hot Pacific Ocean Runs Bloody — Blob Now Features Record Red Tide

Red Tide. It’s what happens when massive algae blooms cover vast regions of ocean.

The biological density of the blooms is so great that they can paint the waters affected a shade of brown or red. A bloody color indicative of clouds of dangerous microbes just beneath the surface. And today, a massive Red Tide — perhaps the largest ever recorded — now stretches from California to Alaska along a vast stretch of the North American West Coast already reeling under the ongoing and dangerous impact of a massive ocean heating event that researchers have called ‘The Blob.’

A Red Tide has numerous impacts to both marine life and human industry. Microbes within the tide produce biotoxins that are deadly to marine species. Domoic acid, PSP and DSP are all toxins that have been identified during the current Red Tide event. The toxins primarily affect fish and marine mammals — risking mass fish and dolphin, sea lion, seal, otter, and whale deaths during widespread blooms. The toxins concentrate as they move up the food chain, making them most dangerous to top predators. Primary effects of the most lethal toxins are convulsions and paralysis. Other toxins cause nausea, cramps and diarrhea.

Human beings are also at risk and for this reason crab and shellfish fisheries all up and down the US West Coast are being closed. Impacts are so widespread marine ecologists like Vera Trainer, manager of the Marine Microbes and Toxins Programs at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, are calling the event unpredented:

https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/hot-pacific-ocean-runs-bloody-blob-now-features-record-red-tide/

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. There are many kinds of algae. Not all are helpful.

It’s good to know that the phytoplankton seem likely to survive. (Isn’t it?)

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life-ecosystems/plants-algae