Question

What is red tide? Walsh and Carder of University of South Florida attribute red tide to dust from Saharan desert storms. They observe that during red tide, a bacterium called Trichodesmium converts nitrogen in the water to a form that algae can use. Link these observations with what you have learned in class.

Answer 1

Red tides - it is a name given to a phenomenon called as algae bloom. These tides are caused by that's algae bloom. at the time of red tides the no. of algae blood increases and results in the discolouration of Costa water. it results in the depletion of oxygen as well as release of toxin which causes illness in humans and animals.

Storm activities kicks up the fine particles present in the arid ropsoil which generates a vast clouds of dust. These dust are carried across the Atlantic Ocean and gulf of Mexico.

These cloud fertilizes the water off the west florida coast with iron. Plant like bacteria uses these iron in order to set a stage to cause red tides. When the level of iron goes up these bacteria known as Trichodesmium fixes nitrogen in the water and converting into the form which can be used by other marine organisms. the addition of nitrogen into the water makes a friendlier environment for toxic algae.