{"id":143,"date":"2015-11-19T10:45:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T17:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms\/?p=143"},"modified":"2016-05-19T13:14:34","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T20:14:34","slug":"akashiwo-sanguinea-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/vms\/akashiwo-sanguinea-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Akashiwo sanguinea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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1.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 General Overview<\/span><\/h2>\n
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  1. sanguinea <\/em>is a dinoflagellate. A dinoflagellate is a single celled organism that has two flagella and some can produce toxins making things poisonous for both humans and other animals. Dinoflagellates are typically armored organism with chloroplasts inside. Dinoflagellates can release harmful toxins. A. sanguinea <\/em>does not release any harmful toxins, but its blooms can be very harmful to birds.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Species Characteristics<\/span><\/h2>\n
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    1. sanguinea <\/em>is an armored dinoflagellate with a central nucleus. They are about 40-80 uM in size. They have a large number of long yellow\/brown chloroplasts that spread out from the center of the cell. It has a trailing flagella on one end that is very long. A. sanguinea <\/em>reproduces asexually. Laboratory experiments suggest that\u00a0A. sanguinea\u00a0<\/em>exhibits strong phototaxis and has high light requirements.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u201cThis species is a nontoxic bloom-forming organism, but is thought to cause seabird deaths through saponification\u2014that is, wind mixing and surfaction cause the organism to create a yellowish green foam which acts as a surfactant, stripping the oils from feathers of seabirds and resulting in hypothermia\u201d (Du et al.)<\/p>\n

      \"Akashiwo<\/a><\/p>\n

      1.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Environmental Characteristics<\/span><\/h2>\n

      A sanguinea <\/em>can be found worldwide from temperate to tropical waters. It is almost always found on coastal and estuarine waters. A. sanguinea <\/em>is photosynthetic. It is suscenptible to parasitic dinoflagellates such as Ameobophrya. <\/em>Algae blooms occur when nutrification gets too out of hand.<\/p>\n

      1.4 \u00a0 \u00a0Expanded Literature<\/span><\/h2>\n

      In An Unusual Bloom of the dinoflagellate Akashiwo sanguinea off the Central Oregon USA<\/em> , scientists wanted to find the rise and demise of a sudden algae bloom of the coast in Oregon. Most research was done in the field. \u00a0Researchers explored the causation of the algal bloom of Akashiwo sanguinea <\/em>which was very harmful to coastal birds along the coast of Oregon. Researchers found that the blooms are most common during mid to late summer, indicating that A. sanguinea <\/em>does well in the warmer temperatures and when upwelling is sporadic and stratified conditions remain. Researchers think that the source of the bloom originated in the Washington coast and moved southward due to weak upwellings and downwellings. Researchers believed it was the weak upwellings that created the ideal environment for the formation of the bloom. In scientific discussion, it is agreed the bloom was associated with warm water and a stratified water column. Peaks in chlorophyll were within the upper few meters of the water column too. In terms of the harmful effects, the bloom did not cause oxygen depletion or toxicity, but actually a surfactant released by the cells caused the oils in bird feathers to go away, leading to severe hypothermia and death.<\/p>\n

      In the second source,\u00a0 all of the work was done in a lab to help fully understand the dinoflagellate. Specifically to understand the specifics behind the algae blooms and the prime water quality for it to happen. Researchers found that with warm temperatures, the cells had a higher resistance to salinity increases. But when with low temperatures, cells burst with a salinity increase. This supports the hypothesis of A. sanguinea <\/em>thriving in warmer waters. Researchers also found that A. sanguinea <\/em>needs a lot of light to survive, as most cells died when it was taken away. Researchers found that\u00a0A. sanguinea\u00a0<\/em>is most likely to be found close to coastal ranges and near or at the top of the water column because of its need for sunlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n