harmul agal bloom

RED TIDES

INTRODUCTION

One of the results of cultural eutrophication , according to Thomas Robert , Eliot , and Ralph (1978 ) is the episodic appearance of red tides or blooms : the rapid growth of phytoplankton populations until they become dense enough to color the water . This phenomenon can occur in bodies of water that range from small ponds to lakes to large coastal regions . Marine occurrences are often reported along the southwest coast of India , southwest Africa , southern California , Texas , Florida , Peru and Japan . Factors associated with red tides or bloom are long hours

of sunlight , shallow warm , offshore water , and high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus

Red tides are most often caused by dinoflagellate Genus of Gymnodinium or Gonyaulax . Both species produce a water soluble toxin of high potency level that affects animal nervous systems . We are going to discuss about the biology of the red tides , what brings them about and what do they bring both to the environment and the humans

THE BIOLOGY OF THE ALGAL BLOOM

According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia , the red tide is an occurrence mostly observed in the estuarine and coastal areas . The mostly affected coastal areas include the Gulf of Mexico and coast of Papua New Guinea The algae occur in masses both in salty and fresh water bodies . The algae are microscopic , and for this reason they also fall in the phytoplankton class . The photosynthetic pigments of these microorganisms , according to the Wikipedia encyclopedia , vary from the photosynthetic pigment green , to the neutral colors of black and white when the microorganism concentration is very high

The high concentration of the algae is the cause behind the production of natural toxin . The toxin as we are going to discuss a menace to other living creatures of the great waters such as the fish , and the sea mammals . The red tides a pert from production of toxins is connected with low oxygen concentrations , and for this reason we can conclude that a bigger percentages of the mortalities observed in coastal areas are associated with a high concentration of this microorganism . One notable example of toxins that are produced by this microorganism is the brevetoxin , which according to the Wikipedia encyclopedia is a natural secretion of the algae called the HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Karenia_brevis " \o "Karenia brevis Karenia brevis . Thomas et al (1978 ) have found that many other blooms exist by being caused by other forms of Algae . This microorganism provide the class of Prymnesim parvum , which is actually a chrysolite and the blue green species of Mycrocystis , Anabaena , Nostoc Aphanizomenon , Gloeotrichia , and the most notorious one Oscillatoria Actually as we have already mentioned the blooms are said not to be necessarily green in color , however a species of the Oscillatoria is most notorious with the red blooms . Thomas and the colleagues have said that the origin of the name the red sea is traced from the numerous species of the genus Oscillatoria , which produced a mass of the red pigment over the surface...