Madagascar’s huge ocean algae bloom was caused by dust from drought-stricken southern Africa: Scientists have found new evidence that desertification, potentially linked to global warming, leads to large amounts of nutrient-rich dust landing in the sea, causing ocean algae to grow rapidly. Biological oceanographer John A. Gittings and an international group of researchers have found …
Microplastics: we’ve found startling quantities in the ice algae that are essential for all Arctic marine life: Last summer, we travelled 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 …
Climate change threatens food but microscopic algae offer answers: Microalgae are a diverse group of microscopic aquatic organisms. Maryna Lahereva/Shutterstock In 2021 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the first volume of its latest authoritative report on climate change. The United Nations secretary-general branded its findings a “code red for humanity”. The emerging and …
Inside the world of tiny phytoplankton – microscopic algae that provide most of our oxygen: Shutterstock/Choksawatdikorn Phytoplankton are microscopic algae living throughout the ocean’s surface waters. They can’t swim and are at the mercy of the currents and tides. Despite their small size, phytoplankton enable life in the oceans – and throughout the planet – …
Researchers creating warning system for toxic algae in lakes new: Satellites in space and a robot under Lake Erie's surface are part of a network of scientific tools trying to keep algae toxins out of drinking water supplies in the shallowest of the Great Lakes. It's one of the most wide-ranging freshwater monitoring systems in …