Algal bloom is smothering Florida coral.Brian Lapointe of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution The Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, also commonly referred to as HBOI, is a private non-profit oceanographic institution located in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA. in Ft. Pierce, Fla., examines a piece of Caulerpa verticillata about 1 mile off the southern coast of Florida. Ordinarily, this seaweed inhabits meter-deep coastal waters and grows in small, isolated patches. Over the past 3 years, however, the inch-high alga has begun smothering smothering death by asphyxiation. Occurs where poultry are carelessly herded into a corner where they cannot escape and where they are piled four or five birds deep; they will die of asphyxia very quickly. See also crowding. coral and other sea life as it blankets the seabed at depths up to 30 m in a swath some 6 miles long and a half mile wide. Unlike its rogue cousin, a Caulerpa overtaking the Mediterranean (SN: 7/4/98, p. 8), this alga is a native species. Lapointe has evidence that its new invasiveness traces to overfertilization with sewage rich in ammonium ammonium /am·mo·ni·um/ (ah-mo´ne-um) the hypothetical radical, NH4, forming salts analogous to those of the alkaline metals. ammonium carbonate , potassium, and nitrates. Injected deep underground on the mainland, the pollution appears to migrate underground, he says, eventually welling up from the ocean floor around coral reefs coral reefs, limestone formations produced by living organisms, found in shallow, tropical marine waters. In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate (limestone). . |
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