Ocean Plants

Dean Bumpus: Tracking Ocean Currents

January 20, 2023

Navy News

Rising temperatures a boon for harmful bacteria in Cape Cod’s fresh and salt water

February 2, 2022

Cape Cod Times

From the toxic scum on ponds and lakes to the nuisance blooms that can shut down vital desalination plants providing water to millions, the Cape Cod region — and the world, is increasingly tuned into the problems presented by Harmful Algal Blooms.

‘The concept looks fairly solid.’ Researchers test new clay process to kill red tide cells

August 23, 2021

Herald Tribune

The process, known as clay flocculation, involves spraying a mixture of clay particles and seawater onto the red tide algae.

To Understand How Warming is Driving Harmful Algal Blooms, Look to Regional Patterns, Not Global Trends

June 16, 2021

Inside Climate News

Accounts of harmful algal growths have increased over time. So has monitoring, however, making it difficult to tell whether the rise in observations is simply because there is greater awareness of their occurence or if it truly represents a growing ocean threat.

Long-running plankton study to resume off of Maine

November 16, 2020

Associated Press

A long-running study of tiny organisms off New England is set to resume due to an agreement between scientific organizations. The survey, which originally ran from 1961 to 2017, will resume because of an agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England.

Citizen science vital to cyanobacteria bloom research

November 15, 2020

Cape Cod Times

“We have many parts of the country with huge coastlines like Maine and California and we’re finding it really difficult to monitor for multiple toxins threatening people and ecosystems,” said Don Anderson, a senior scientist at WHOI and a principal investigator at the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health.

Researching phytoplankton 2000 miles from shore aboard the R/V Atlantis

September 1, 2020

WCVB Boston

Don’t be fooled by phytoplankton’s microscopic size, the creature is among the most vital organisms for the ocean and planet’s survival.

How a Volcanic Eruption Set Off a Phytoplankton Bloom

September 5, 2019

The New York Times

Lava-driven nutrient fountains “could be a pretty important driver of phytoplankton ecology in the broader ocean,” said Harriet Alexander, a biological oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved in the latest study.