Sunday, December 18, 2005

Ice Ice and Tons of Phytoplankton

The ice has brought us a booming bloom. The phytoplankton are taking advantage of the calm water to grow. Looking out from the pier you can see the brownish green cloud in the water formed since the ice blew in providing shelter for the organisms helping their population explode. Phytoplankton need nutrients and sun to live. Under the ice they have both with no mixing and churning to slow the growth rate. Now we have a nice soup for the first twenty feet of surface water. After the ice clears we will be able to see what long term effect this has caused on the local aquatic environment.

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