http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Eutrophication of the seas may have an impact on genetic variation in algae, research at the University of Gothenburg shows. http://www.physorg.com/news175178474.html Biology Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:10:03 EST news175178474 Complex interactions between the ocean and overlying atmosphere cause hurricanes to form, and also have a tremendous amount of influence on the path, intensity and duration of a hurricane or tropical weather event. As researchers develop new ways to better understand and predict the nature of individual storms, a largely unstudied phenomenon has caught the attention of scientists at LSU's Earth Scan Laboratory, or ESL. Cool water upwellings occurring within ocean cyclones following alongside and behind hurricanes are sometimes strong enough to reduce the strength of hurricanes as they cross paths. http://www.physorg.com/news173369507.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:12:39 EST news173369507 Predicting harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in the Great Lakes is now a reality as NOAA announces an experimental HAB forecast system in Lake Erie. HABs produce toxins that may pose a significant risk to human and animal health through water recreation and may form scum that are unsightly and odorous to beach visitors, impacting the coastal economy. Forecasts depicting current and future locations of blooms, as well as intensity, will alert scientists and managers to possible threats to the Great Lakes beaches and assist in mitigation efforts. http://www.physorg.com/news172424327.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:40:01 EST news172424327 NOAA has awarded Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution $120,000 as part of an anticipated three-year, nearly $500,000 project, to determine how nitrogen and phosphorus promote brown tides on the East Coast. Funds were awarded through the interagency Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program. http://www.physorg.com/news172402662.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:38:34 EST news172402662 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists digging in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in England have uncovered the fossilized remains of a prehistoric squid-like creature that lived in the Jurassic period around 150 million years ago. Among their finds was a rock, which they broke open to reveal the intact one-inch long fossilized ink sac. http://www.physorg.com/news170662861.html Other Sciences Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:30:01 EST news170662861 Under a microscope, Heterosigma akashiwo looks like a potato or a cornflake. To the naked eye, sea lettuce is a big, green sheet of seaweed. In most cases, these different algae are food for the ocean's vegetarians. http://www.physorg.com/news169838300.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:20:01 EST news169838300 The ice is melting, the sea level is rising and species are conquering new habitats. The warming of the world climate has many consequences. In the current issue of the renowned journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) and the HYAX Lake Ecosystem Laboratory in Aix-en-Provence (Germany) report that climate change influences the size of aquatic organisms. http://www.physorg.com/news167550944.html Biology Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:10:01 EST news167550944 Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have successfully conducted the first remote detection of a harmful algal species and its toxin below the ocean's surface. The achievement was recently reported in the June issue of Oceanography. http://www.physorg.com/news166807443.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:50:11 EST news166807443 The blooming of toxic algae that occurs during the summer conceal a fight for life and death. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, propose in an article published in the journal PNAS that algal blooms are created when aggressive algae kill and injure their competitors in order to absorb the nutrients they contain. http://www.physorg.com/news165577175.html Biology Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:50:04 EST news165577175 (PhysOrg.com) -- New UQ Science research has found the increase in nutrients coming out of our river systems is putting pressure on our mangrove forests and making them far more susceptible to environmental variability and climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news161967492.html Biology Tue, 19 May 2009 15:59:10 EST news161967492 (PhysOrg.com) -- Upgrading sewage treatment in the southeastern Baltic Sea states to Swedish standards may suffice to reduce algal blooms in the Baltic to levels of the 1950s. This is shown in a study performed by Andreas Bryhn at Uppsala University that is published in the journal PLoS ONE. http://www.physorg.com/news160931482.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 May 2009 16:11:45 EST news160931482 Crop growth, drinking water and recreational water sports could all be adversely affected if predicted changes in rainfall patterns over the coming years prove true, according to research published this month in Biology and Fertility of Soils. http://www.physorg.com/news159023672.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:15:02 EST news159023672 Beaches in the Gulf tourism hub of Dubai have been plagued by a bloom of algae known as the "red tide" that has killed fish and is potentially harmful to humans, a municipality official said on Tuesday. http://www.physorg.com/news158333625.html Space & Earth Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:34:13 EST news158333625 An oil spill polluting popular tourist beaches on Australia's northeast coast is 10 times worse than originally reported, according to the state government. http://www.physorg.com/news156269394.html Space & Earth Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:10:17 EST news156269394 Ecological changes caused by humans affect natural biodiversity. For example, the eutrophication of Greifensee and Lake Constance in the 1970s and 1980s led to genetic changes in a species of water flea which was ultimately displaced. Despite the fact that water quality has since been significantly improved, this species has not been re-established. This was demonstrated by researchers from Eawag and from two German universities (Frankfurt and Konstanz), who analysed genetic material from Daphnia eggs up to 100 years old. http://www.physorg.com/news156104885.html Biology Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:28:40 EST news156104885 Protecting drinking water and preventing harmful coastal "dead zones", as well as eutrophication in many lakes, will require reducing both nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Because streams and rivers are conduits to the sea, management strategies should be implemented along the land-to-ocean continuum. In most cases, strategies that focus only on one nutrient will fail. http://www.physorg.com/news154278113.html Biology Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:02:22 EST news154278113 (PhysOrg.com) -- Not far beneath the ocean's surface, tiny phytoplankton swimming upward in a daily commute toward morning light sometimes encounter the watery equivalent of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone: a sharp variation in marine currents that traps billions of these single-celled organisms and sends them tumbling until a shift in wind or tide alters the currents and sets them free. http://www.physorg.com/news154275440.html Biology Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:17:51 EST news154275440 Phosphorus is one of the key nutrients that can cause algal blooms and related water quality problems in lakes, rivers, and estuaries worldwide. Phosphorus entering waters originates from a variety of sources. Agricultural land receiving long term applications of organic by-products such as animal manure is one of the major contributors. Such soils often become enriched with P, leading to elevated P loss through erosion and runoff. Information on the chemical characteristics of P in these soils is essential to improving our understanding of how P behaves in soils and how it is transported in runoff to devise better management practices that protect water quality. http://www.physorg.com/news152975509.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:12:55 EST news152975509 A new study funded by NOAA and the National Science Foundation reveals that a part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates Washington state from Canada's British Columbia, is a potential "hot spot" for toxic harmful algal blooms affecting the Washington and British Columbia coasts. Understanding where and how these blooms originate and move is critical for accurate forecasts that could provide early warning to protect human and ecosystem health, according to NOAA scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news152817414.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:17:28 EST news152817414 A part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates Washington state from Canada's British Columbia, is a potential "hot spot" for toxic harmful algal blooms affecting the Washington and British Columbia coasts. http://www.physorg.com/news152561023.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:05:01 EST news152561023 Cambridge, Md. - An international group of scientists is linking nutrient pollution in the world's coastal seas to an increase in the number of harmful algal blooms reported in recent years. When harmful algal blooms (HAB's) occur, they taint seafood with toxins, cause human respiratory and skin irritations and cause fish or mammal kills in coastal waters. http://www.physorg.com/news150482617.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:43:37 EST news150482617 The over-enrichment of fresh, transitional, and marine waters with nitrogen (N) can lead to problems associated with eutrophication, such as a change in species composition of aquatic plants and nuisance algal blooms. In this context, dynamic models of flow and water quality are required to aid the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and to understand the impacts of environmental change. http://www.physorg.com/news150373619.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:26:59 EST news150373619 A paper published in the current issue of the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, explains how a DNA test can be used to detect harmful algal blooms across the globe. The approach outlined could help reduce the economic impact on fisheries, recreational activities, and aquaculture sites, such as salmon and shellfish farms, and pearl oyster farms. It could also help decrease the outbreaks of food poisoning due to contamination of seafood by the toxins some of these algae produce. http://www.physorg.com/news142003999.html Biology Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:33:19 EST news142003999