Lipids - Copepods

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1121

NEWS

Copepods eat their own weight belts

14 December 2011, by Tom Marshall

Scientists have solved the mystery of how tiny marine crustaceans called copepods regulate the rhythms of their life-cycle.

....

"It turns out that it's all about oil. The copepods have specialised fat stores that act like weight belts, letting the copepods maintain their depth easily and avoid attracting predators' attention with unnecessary movements. Building up enough fat reserves seems to be an essential step before diapause can begin - these reserves automatically trigger diapause once they reach a threshold level."

...

"Pond explains that the unsaturated fats that are crucial for buoyancy control are found mostly in plankton algae known as diatoms, so having these to feed on is crucial for copepods' ability to diapause successfully. He now plans to look at whether similar mechanisms help control the movements of other animal plankton, such as krill."

Florida Slime Crime Tracker

Interesting website about Algal blooms in Florida

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&mpa=0&ctz=300&mpf=0&vps=15&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=211539618625491573613.0004b1b520a27d0c8cb86

Florida Slime Crime Tracker

Florida's waterways are plagued by slime caused by fertilizer, sewage and animal manure. Click blue icons on the map, or on the list below, to view photographs of the muck.

The brackets below indicate the counties in which the slimed waterbody resides.

The photos were contributed by numerous clean water activists and advocacy organizations from across Florida and compiled into map form by the Sierra Club.

Have a photo to add? Comments? Want to help fight slime crime? Contact us at slimecrimes@gmail.com

Biogeochemical significance of silicon in the world oceans

http://www.nio.org/index/option/com_newsdisplay/task/view/tid/4/sid/23/nid/33

Biogeochemical significance of silicon in the world oceans

Diatoms are the major autotrophic communities in the euphotic zone in most regions of the world oceans. One of the most essential nutrients for frustule formation (cell wall or, theca) in the diatoms is silicate (SiO3). Higher the availability of SiO3 faster and better is the growth of diatoms. While emphasizing on the pivotal role of Si in the biology of diatoms and radiolarians in the oceanic realms, Dr Ittekkot, in his seminar at NIO, cautioned that anthropogenic activities, in particular construction of dams on major rivers in the world, are causing reduced Si discharges into the oceans and affecting the growth and abundance of diatoms over there. Based on the available literature on diatom composition, abundance and pre- and post-obstructions of the reverine discharges he indicated that the diatoms are adversely affected and giving alarming signals of depleting phytoplankton assemblages post-obstruction. Evidences point to catastrophic effects at least in the ocean-margins on diatoms, the major, innocuous autotrophs in the oceans. With Si depletion but nitrate and phosphate in abundance, the dinoflagellates - many species of which are toxic to many marine and terrestrial life forms - bloom and bring in unwanted changes in the marine ecosystem including mass mortalities of aquatic fauna and reduced fish harvests. He also highlighted the role of Si in regulating C fluxes [higher C fluxes when Si is adequately available for phytoplankton] and suggested that a great deal of new science needs to be done to address the consequences of reduced Si reaching the oceans due to dam constructions world over. Dr Ittekkot also brought out that 2 micromoles of SiO3 in the euphotic zone is adequate for the normal growth and activities of diatoms. While the deep-sea SiO3 concentrations are much higher, the time taken to reach up in the surface layers is very long and, often may not make it to the surface layers owing to physical barriers such as upper layer stratification. He summed up the seminar by appealing scientific community to address the Si issue from both the proposed river basin connectivity and the long term consequences of ocean productivity and biogeochemistry in an altered Si cycling scenario. Dr Venu Ittekkot works at ZMT, Bremen, Germany. (Reported by: N. Ramaiah)

MARINE PLANKTON DIATOMS OF THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/922945w8

MARINE PLANKTON DIATOMS OF THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA
BY EASTER E. CUPP

Volume 5, No.1, pp. 1 - 238,
Submitted by editors December 26, 1940
Issued March 13, 1943

Pg 33

"IMPORTANCE OF DIATOMS AS A SOURCE OF FOOD IN THE SEA

Diatoms have for many years been recognized as an extremely important source of food for plankton animals. Haeckel (1890), Johnstone (1908), Lohmann (1911), Gran (1912, 1930, 1931), Lebour (1921, 1922, 1923), Herdman (1923), Bigelow (1926), and Allen (1934b) have published valuable discussions of the problems involved in the abundance of life in the sea. Johnstone (1908) stated: “The Diatomaceae are above all the most important organisms in the sea regarded from the point of view of their significance as the producers of organic substance. The diatoms are the ‘pastures of the sea’ and correspond to the ‘grass of the fields’ of the land.” Gran (1930) wrote: “These enormous
quantities of diatoms, without doubt, are the most important food for the pelagic copepods and indirectly for the fish larvae which develop after the great spring spawning period.” Phifer (1933) likewise wrote: “Marine plants are the principal source upon which the fauna of the oceans depends for the energy necessary for existence. . . . Undoubtedly the shore algae produce organic material forming nutritive substances for bacteria which in turn are probably consumed by small protozoa. However, the phytoplankton are directly consumed and produce organic food in much larger quantities since the areal extent of their distribution is many times greater than that of the shore forms. Of the groups in the phytoplankton, such as diatoms, dinoflagellates, algal spores, coccolithophores, the first mentioned play the major role in temperate seas.” "

Diatoms were thoroughly studied from 19th Century but unfortunately the knowledge is not being used today to solve problems of water pollution and climate change.

What's an Abundant Potential Food Source That We Haven't Developed a Taste for Yet?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/02/magazine/29mag-food-issue.html#/policy

What's an Abundant Potential Food Source That We Haven't Developed a Taste for Yet?

BY LUKE MITCHELL

ImagineChina/Corbis
Algae on the beach at a resort in Qingdao, Shandong, China.

While the world's farmers labored to produce 819 million tons of corn in 2009, the world's rivers, lakes and seas brought forth 30 trillion tons of algae. The only reason the oceans aren't choked with the stuff is because so many living things other than humans willingly devour it. No one has figured out a profitable way to harvest naturally occurring microalgae, but roving aquafarmers could in theory one day reap the oxygen-depleting algae blooms that have created at least 400 oceanic dead zones worldwide, some greater in area than New Jersey. In the meantime, a few companies have begun trying to make food from commercially grown algae. (Algae as a source of biofuel has been a money-losing proposition so far.) Scientists at Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals have developed an algalin flour that could replace the oil and eggs in many snacks; Aurora Algae (formerly Aurora Biofuels) is constructing a 1,500-acre production facility in Australia to make an ingredient for patties and nuggets. Leslie van der Meulen, Aurora's vice president for business development, says its product will "rival any chickenless item on the market today."

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Fish, Shrimp, Oysters, etc., consume algae and have developed a means to 'harvest' [consume] algae.

Of course these mainly consume Diatom Algae and Green Algae and not Blue Green Algae.

Red Tide Bioluminescence gives spectacular neon blue light show [Video]

Red Tide Bioluminescence gives spectacular neon blue light show [Video]

http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-100211_red-tide-bloom.html

Published on October 2, 2011 8:25 am PT - By TWS Science Reporter - Signed by SEO Officer

No larger image available

(TheWeatherSpace.com) - In one of the most spectacular ocean displays, 'Red Tide' is awing people in San Diego County. The Culprit; Phyoplankton. this Algal Bloom season has been going on since Late August.

Red Tide gets the name from the color of the water during the daytime. The color of the water is due to the Algal Bloom, in which large numbers of aquatic microorganism accumulate rapidly in the water. This causes a discolored surface.

Daphnia - Lake Lawnmowers

http://www.ok4me2.net/2011/09/30/loss-of-lake-lawnmowers-leads-to-algae-blooms/

Loss of ‘Lake Lawnmowers’ Leads to Algae Blooms

Sep.30, 2011 in Earth Sciences, Lakes, Science and Technology

An algal bloom in a lake near Parry Sound, Ontario, located on the Canadian Shield, another region of Canada experiencing lakewater calcium decline. Image courtesy of Andrew Paterson. (Credit: Ontario Ministry of the Environment)

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2011) — Unprecedented algae growth in some lakes could be linked to the decline of water calcium levels and the subsequent loss of an important algae-grazing organism that helps keep blooms at bay.

Daphnia – also known as water fleas — act like microscopic lawnmowers in lakes, feeding on algae and keeping it in check. However, without sufficient calcium, these water fleas cannot reproduce.

"When water calcium levels get low and Daphnia populations decrease in any lake, algal growth goes unchecked and blooms can occur," says lead author and biology doctoral student Jennifer Korosi. "Losing an important grazer like these water fleas has a domino effect that leads to other water quality problems."

Declining calcium concentrations in some lakes, which is linked to acid deposition and logging, has only recently been identified as a serious environmental problem in North America and Europe.