Dinoflagellate Algae

Coral bleaching is normally characterized by the expulsion of the zooxanthellae algae, loss of algal pigmentation, or both. Coral bleaching events have had serious effects on corals and reefs worldwide. What is crucial to the understanding of zooxanthellae expulsion and bleaching is how the density of zooxanthellae within the coral is changing, if at all, under the prevailing range of environmental conditions (Gates and Edmunds, 1999). Over the last twenty years, there has been a dramatic increase in both the frequency and intensity of coral bleaching events. Sixty major bleaching events have been reported between 1960 and 1979, whereas only nine were reported prior to 1979 (Huppert and Stone, 1998). Given the dependence of the coral on this symbiotic algae, it is important to determine the cause of these bleaching events. According to Helvarg (2000, p.12):

One of the most damaging algae species known to Florida along the south-west coast is the Karenia brevis, also known as Florida red tide. These microscopic algae bloom all year around in the Gulf of Mexico producing brevetoxins, which contains a suite of neurotoxic polyether compound. These blooms can last as long as 18 months fluctuating between insignificant blooms to critical, impacting both the marine ecosystems and humans health (Pierce and Henry, 2008). The Florida red tide will continue to be the cause of unexplained fish and other animal deaths, along with human illnesses unless more research and observations is done to find a way of controlling these algae blooms.

In this research paper I will talk about how a large decrease in the algae population in the Chesapeake Bay will cause problems for not just fish and other species but the people who fish and make a living off of it. A large decrease in algae population will have a domino effect on the food chain. Having a major decrease in algae will hurt how others species live and protect themselves.

Since the algae population decreases, so does the algae bloom, which sink to the bottom and decompose to create oxygen many underwater animals need. Some blooms also produce toxins, which can harm or kill the fish, harm animals that drink the water, and cause problems for humans as well. With a decrease in algae blooms, plants and animals would no longer have a steady population. They would end up

Algae blooms have been an issue in the Chesapeake Bay, especially in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Algae is a natural and critical part of the ecosystem, however in large doses it is harmful to the plants and organisms within the ecosystem. Algae blooms can block out sunlight and kill other plants in the water. Algae depends on various factors such as water, nutrients and carbon dioxide to grow. Eutrophication of the Inner Harbor has lead to algae blooms that have caused large fish kills in the past. When there is an over abundance of certain chemical nutrients eutrophication can occur. Runoff from land and farms is the main cause of excess nutrients into the water. The most common nutrients that are related to algae outbreaks are nitrate nitrogen and phosphate. In addition, a lack of dissolved oxygen can also be an indicator for the process of eutrophication and risk of an algae outbreak. A particular type of algae commonly found in Maryland is known as Prorocentrum minimum. Prorocentrum tends to cause “mahogany tides” causing water to be brown and have an odor. There has been a campaign launched by the Healthy Harbor

Red tide is the common name for a large concentration of certain species of dinoflagellates. This event accumulates harmful algal blooms quickly, resulting in discoloration near the surface water. Dense enough algal blooms cause harmful toxins strong enough to affect people and the oceans ecosystem as a whole. Karenia brevis is the most troublesome species of dinoflagellate in the Gulf of Mexico. This species reproduces by asexual cell division, therefore, given the right conditions, the population can rapidly increase in size. K. brevis needs large amounts of the correct nutrients to reproduce at toxic speed. The nutrients responsible for supporting Florida's red tide are nitrogen and phosphorus.

Since organisms living in communities form interdependent relationships, a change in the abundance of one species will not only affect the physical and more direct interactions, but could indirectly affect the number of other species within the community as a consequence (Wootton 1993). These indirect affects rise because the interactions between pairs of species are not independent of other species, such as increasing the density of vegetation may increase the survival rate of the prey, reducing the intensity of the interaction between the predator and prey (Wootton 1993, 1994). An

|populations could be affected by the food supply and the temperature. In fifty years at this level of emissions the level of both marine|

Fresh cell homogenate of G. semen collected from Lake Jelino (“FH” treatments) with chl-a range: 894 – 3576 mg m-3, caused distinct negative effect on Daphnia survival (Fig. 2.). It increased with the increasing biomass of alga and time of exposure. At lower chl-a concentrations (894 and 1778 mg m-3) the survival rate averaged 40% – 70 % after 24 h and 20 % – 30 % after 48 and 72 h of exposure. However, the addition of the most concentrated and fresh G.semen homogenized biomass (chl-a: 3576 mg m-3) caused 100% Daphnia mortality already after

Red tide is a very serious issue that severely affects the West Coast of Florida. Red tide is defined as a toxic bloom in red dinoflagellates. It has major impacts on its surroundings. Algal species that have harmful effects are commonly referred to as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Toxic red tide is threatening tourism in West Florida as well as wildlife, specifically the endangered manatees as it extends down the Florida coast. When conditions are right, dinoflagellates will bloom in very large numbers. Red tides name comes from the color that the blooms give the water when there are high concentrations of algae. Don Anderson, a senior scientist at the Woods

Toxic algal blooms are occasions of excess reproduction of toxin-producing algae, making damage to the ecosystems and humans. Among the toxic algal blooms are ones caused by Pseudo-nitzschia species, producing a toxin called domoic acid (DA) (Tatters, Fu & Hutchins, 2012). These microalgae belong to diatoms and are spread within the Northwestern Atlantic region, causing sporadic issues in the Gulf of Maine (Fernandes et al., 2013), Chesapeake Bay and along the west coast since 2006 (Pistocchi et al., 2012).

There are several environmental concerns affecting the community of Lusby, Maryland, but of main concern is the cyanobacteria growing in the Chesapeake Bay. The blue-green algae called cyanobacteria is infesting the waterways in and around Lusby causing a hazard to the community. According to National Geographic (n.d.), the Chesapeake Bay was one of the first waterways recognized in the 1970s having overgrowth of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria contains both an algae and a bacteria and when growth exceeds space and the algae begins to die, two issues occur: toxins are produced and released which are harmful to both humans and animals and hypoxia follows as oxygen is consumed in excessive creating a dead zone in the water for all other living

Our end results only supported to some extent our hypothesis that increasing numbers of brine shrimp would directly cause decreases in algae concentration. Our hypothesis, if applied to only the jars of 3 and 6 brine shrimp, would be highly supported, due to the significant difference in algae concentrations. Evidently, the more shrimp that were present in the ecosystem, the less algae that were available at the end. In an ecosystem with more consumers, the consumers demand a higher amount of nutrients from the environment, or more specifically, the producers. And as the consumers develop and grow, those demands also grow. And thus, when we increased the amount of brine shrimp, more algae were consumed per unit time. Though the rate of consumption from the brine shrimp did not exceed the rate of growth of the algae in any jar, the

The ecosystem with which the simulation is being done is an aquatic ecosystem. This specific ecosystem is home to producers such as: black pine, coral weed, and nori seaweed. Stationary consumers like acorn barnacles, gooseneck barnacles, and mussels are also present. Mobile consumers such as chitin, starfish, and whelk. The invasive mobile consumer is the green crab. Animals such as starfish compete with others like green crabs for mussels. Starfish and whelk prey on and also compete for the gooseneck barnacle. Whelk and green crab also compete for the acorn barnacles. The competition between starfish and green crab over mussels is what led me to my hypothesis as the mussel is one of the largest secondary consumers in terms

The experiment took place in a laboratory setting, and the first step was obtaining sixty individual Daphnia magna (that were neither adults nor tiny offspring) from a large tank in the lab. These individuals were equally divided into three groups; low density, medium density, and high density. The twenty Daphnia assigned to the low density group were split into four groups of five and pipetted into one of four tubes filled with 10mL of Chlamydomonas algae. The twenty Daphnia assigned to the medium density group were split into two groups of ten and placed into one of two tubes also filled up to 10mL with Chlamydomonas. The final twenty Daphnia were all placed into a single tube filled with 10mL of the algae. In order to avoid suffocation-related