Phytoplankton

Without it, complex life like us would not be possible. This comes from tiny marine plants called phytoplankton. Like all plants, they use photosynthesis to generate energy and produce oxygen as a byproduct. There are 5,000 species of these little powerhouses at work right now! However, we don’t seem to be very grateful. We dump 8 million tons of plastic…

ocean. As the oxygen solubility of the sea depends on the temperature of the sea, warmer temperature might lead to the escape of oxygen, ocean deoxygenation possibly be resulted. Subsequently, the growth rate some primary organisms, including phytoplankton organisms and algae, may be declined and the marine food chains may be disconnected (9). Unbalanced global marine ecosystems and marine harvest loss could be resulted in the long…

Complex issues such as health problems, environmental issues, or environmental health problems, such as air and water pollution, hazard wastes sites, lead poisoning and species instability are all liked together and are fixed in communities in which they occur. These kinds of complex problems that occur in communities are said to be “wicked problems” where different stakeholders cannot find scientific solutions in order to fix these complex issues. These problems are seen throughout the world,…

extremely aggressive (invasive) and can take over large areas of aquatic habitat. The floating mat of vegetation of macrophytes covers available sunlight from the water surface. The direct effect of this is low production in natural fish food (Phytoplankton – Zooplankton species) thus resulting in overall low fish productivity. The bloom of macrophyte vegetation result also in massive fish kills due to high oxygen demand and competition for available nutrients. These invasive aquatic macrophytes…

The sun radiates energy in a wide range wavelength. Ultraviolet rays reach the earth surface in wavelengths that range between 290 and 400 nm. The impact of the wavelength to the surface of the earth is determined by size of the wavelength. When the wavelength is short, it causes a more energetic radiation that in turn creates more harm to the surface. Ultraviolet light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is invisible to the human eye. The sun is a source of radiation that forms the full…

Introduction This practical consisted of using a microscope on two different types of samples, human hair and Lily pollen to acquire the basics of using a microscope. Three different types of objective lenses were used (4x, 10X and 40X). Furthermore it gave an insight to particulate matter in the air. Q1. Table 1 below shows the diameter of a human hair under previous stated objective lenses Standard deviation is used in this case to quantify the amount dispersal or variation in the results.…

actually a vitamin, but a steroid hormone formed in the body when the skin is exposed to sunbeams, mainly ultraviolet B light (UVB) rays22. The compound vitamin D has been found in organisms that are more than 500 million years old, including phytoplankton (Emiliania huxleyi), and diatoms (Skeletonema menxelii), which can endogenously synthesize vitamin D (ergosterol, or vitamin D2).Vitamin D is a steroid hormone with pleiotropic…

The Great Barrier Reef has always been listed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World due to its once natural beauty and sheer scope. Located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, the reef is the largest of its kind. In a graphic published on website The Conversation, the reef is said to contain an estimated 2,900 individual reefs spread over an area of about 133,000 square miles or 344,400 square kilometers (Pressey, Grech, Brodie, Day). It is estimated that the reef contains six…

In 1965, John Langdon Brooks and Stanley I. Dodson published one of the most significant ecological papers in recent ecological history that discussed the predation, body size, and composition of plankton in various environments. This paper focused mainly on six areas those being the following: the effect of a marine planktivore on lake plankton, changes in Crystal Lake Plankton, effects of predation by Alosa, size and food selectively, size-efficiency hypothesis, and size of coexisting…

Is the Growth of Microcystis and Lake Water Protists Affected by Phosphorus Concentration? _______________________________________ Purpose The purpose of this experiment is to determine if algae will grow more if fertilizer is added to the water where the algae is growing. Background/ Introduction An algal bloom is an increase and accumulation of algae in freshwater or salt water systems. Most algae blooms are caused by blue-green algae. Blue-green algae is actually not algae at all, it is…