Hey everyone! We are ‘The Algalblooms’ and our team consists of 6 members who come from all over the world, from U.S.A. to Singapore. For the next 10 days, we will work together to form as many (hopefully harmful, whaat??l) algal blooms as we can and here is how our amazing experience starts.
Before we start to tell you more about our experiment and what we will do, we thought it will be helpful to give some basic information about harmful algal blooms (HAB). Briefly, HABs are also known as “red tides” and they are natural phenomena which have negative effect on environment and organisms. There are two main ways that they can have the negative effect. First of all, they can produce toxins which alters physical structure of cells and secondly, biomass that is accumulated can affect co-occurring organisms and leads changes in food web dynamics.
One of the interesting things about HABs is that the toxic microscopic organisms called phytoplankton which contribute to the development of HABs are filtered from the water and consumed by mussels, oysters and other shellfish. Therefore, over time, these toxins can accumulate to the levels which can lead to illness or death of the consumers, even humans!
So, after a day of brainstorming, we submitted our project proposal and we were all set to leave the port using a boat to gather some microalgae. Well, we were thinking to sample all three location in half an hour but I guess, life had a different plan for us. So, the clouds were rolling in when we left and we were stuck on a rock within minutes! Rochelle and Ali had to jump in the water to learn a new skill, boat pushing. Once we were all safe in the boat we finally headed out to our site to begin our sampling; however, we could not stop the boat due to the current so our sampling location was more like dancing, 2 steps forward 1 step back. Two hours later we were back to the station with our three samples and wet clothing. Additionally, we also collected the rocks near the shore so we could get more algae for our experiments. While the field team was outside enjoying the sun, looking for a 'sign' of the algae bloom and doing the sampling, the lab team was preparing the experimental set-up.
For the lab experiment, we want to know if local rise in water temperature will induce an algal bloom in combination with elevated nutrient levels. Therefore, we set the experiment at three different temperatures; one the same temperature as in the bay and 2 other elevated temperatures. For each temperature condition, we also want to see the effect of different nutrient concentration to cause an algal bloom.
We took our algae directly from the field sample from the Tjärno Bay. To monitor the growth of algae, we will measure nutrient level and pH daily. At the end of the experiment, we will put filter feeders (i.e. barnacles) in the samples to see the effect of growing/blooming algae if they will survive or die.
Curious if the experiment will succeed? Read our upcoming posts about the eventful days ahead in the field and in the lab!
Before we start to tell you more about our experiment and what we will do, we thought it will be helpful to give some basic information about harmful algal blooms (HAB). Briefly, HABs are also known as “red tides” and they are natural phenomena which have negative effect on environment and organisms. There are two main ways that they can have the negative effect. First of all, they can produce toxins which alters physical structure of cells and secondly, biomass that is accumulated can affect co-occurring organisms and leads changes in food web dynamics.
One of the interesting things about HABs is that the toxic microscopic organisms called phytoplankton which contribute to the development of HABs are filtered from the water and consumed by mussels, oysters and other shellfish. Therefore, over time, these toxins can accumulate to the levels which can lead to illness or death of the consumers, even humans!
So, after a day of brainstorming, we submitted our project proposal and we were all set to leave the port using a boat to gather some microalgae. Well, we were thinking to sample all three location in half an hour but I guess, life had a different plan for us. So, the clouds were rolling in when we left and we were stuck on a rock within minutes! Rochelle and Ali had to jump in the water to learn a new skill, boat pushing. Once we were all safe in the boat we finally headed out to our site to begin our sampling; however, we could not stop the boat due to the current so our sampling location was more like dancing, 2 steps forward 1 step back. Two hours later we were back to the station with our three samples and wet clothing. Additionally, we also collected the rocks near the shore so we could get more algae for our experiments. While the field team was outside enjoying the sun, looking for a 'sign' of the algae bloom and doing the sampling, the lab team was preparing the experimental set-up.
For the lab experiment, we want to know if local rise in water temperature will induce an algal bloom in combination with elevated nutrient levels. Therefore, we set the experiment at three different temperatures; one the same temperature as in the bay and 2 other elevated temperatures. For each temperature condition, we also want to see the effect of different nutrient concentration to cause an algal bloom.
We took our algae directly from the field sample from the Tjärno Bay. To monitor the growth of algae, we will measure nutrient level and pH daily. At the end of the experiment, we will put filter feeders (i.e. barnacles) in the samples to see the effect of growing/blooming algae if they will survive or die.
Curious if the experiment will succeed? Read our upcoming posts about the eventful days ahead in the field and in the lab!
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